BUENOS AIRES, Oct 20 (Reuters): Argentina's central bank said on Monday it signed a $20 billion exchange-rate stabilization agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department, six days ahead of a key midterm election.
The central bank's statement, opens new tab said the agreement sets forth terms for bilateral currency swap operations between the U.S. and Argentina, but it provided no technical details.
The central bank, the BCRA, said: "Such operations will allow the BCRA to expand its set of monetary and exchange rate policy instruments, including the liquidity of its international reserves."
The Argentine peso closed at a record low, down 1.7% on the day to end at 1,475 per dollar.
The BCRA said the pact was part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance its ability to respond to foreign exchange and capital markets volatility.
The U.S. Treasury did not respond to a request for details on the new swap line and has not issued its own statement about the arrangement.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week the arrangement with banks and investment funds would be backed by International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights held in the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund that will be converted to dollars.
Bessent has said the U.S. would not put additional conditions on Argentina beyond President Javier Milei's government continuing to pursue its fiscal austerity and economic reform programs to foster more private-sector growth.
Bessent has announced several U.S. purchases of pesos in recent weeks, but has declined to disclose details.
Currency traders said that since the Treasury first purchased pesos on October 9, sales of dollars into the peso market have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, though the source of the selling has not been disclosed.
Brad Setser, a former U.S. Treasury official who is now a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was a "preponderance of evidence is that the peso is significantly over-valued," an assessment shared with other analysts but which Bessent rejects.
Setser said these indicators include strong import and outbound tourism growth, Argentines purchasing cheaper goods in neighboring countries and the central bank's failure to meet the IMF's reserve accumulation targets.
"It does seem to me that the Treasury is taking an unusually large risk of losing money" in supporting the peso, he added.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a group of U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs was hesitant to lend $20 billion to Argentina without guarantees or collateral. The banks did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
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