BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina will announce a much anticipated relaxation of currency controls at a press conference scheduled for 6 p.m. (2100 GMT) Wednesday, a government statement said.
President Mauricio Macri, elected last month on a free markets platform and inaugurated on Thursday, has promised to loosen state controls on the economy and allow the peso currency to devalue.
"The lifting of currency controls will be announced," the statement said, without specifying to what extent the economy ministry is prepared to allow free access to U.S. dollars.
Farmers in the grains-exporting powerhouse have been waiting for a devaluation before selling stockpiles of soybeans that had piled up under the government of Argentina's previous leader Cristina Fernandez. Fernandez used central bank reserves to prop up the peso, a policy Macri has vowed to change.
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by James Dalgleish)
