Argentina is heading to the polls on October 22 for a presidential election dominated by another profound economic crisis. In September, annual inflation in Latin America’s third-largest economy hit 124%, its highest since 1991.
This was after a devaluation of nearly 20% in the peso amid pressure on the government from major creditor the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop artificially propping it up. To curb the inflation, Argentina’s central bank raised the benchmark rate of interest to a horrific 118%.
The country is also in recession, fuelled by a three-year drought that has done much damage to agricultural exports. The harvest of soybeans, one of the nation’s biggest exports, is barely one-third of five years ago.
