BUENOS AIRES Dec 15 Argentina's central bank
said on Tuesday it had hiked interest rates on its short- and
medium-term fixed deposits in pesos by 8 percentage points, as
the market braced for a likely sharp devaluation of the currency
later this week.
The issuance of fixed deposits was the first by the central
bank under its new chief Federico Sturzenegger.
On Monday, Argentina's new President Mauricio Macri had said
he would start this week lifting the restrictions to access to
U.S. dollars that were imposed by the previous government. He
has not specified the speed at which he will lift the
restrictions, known collectively as the "cepo".
Freeing up capital controls will likely weaken the official
peso exchange rate. Local market sources said they expect the
rate to weaken to around 13.5 to 15 to the greenback,
versus the current rate of 9.8 per dollar.
(Reporting by Walter Bianchi; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing
by Diane Craft)