Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri announced sweeping new austerity measures Monday, including the elimination of government ministries and stiff taxes on exports to reduce budget deficits and stabilise the economy. The centre-right president admitted in a speech to the nation that Argentina was facing "an emergency", after its currency, the peso, lost more than half its dollar value this year. "We must confront a fundamental problem: to not spend more than we have, to make efforts to balance the state’s accounts," he said in the televised address. He pledged a pared-down government following cuts that would see the number of ministries slashed from 22 to 10 in an effort to save money, demoting more than half his ministers. The move had little immediate effect on the markets, where the peso shed a further 3.5% on Monday to trade at 39.38 to the dollar, slipping back near the record lows of last week. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Buenos Aires in protest against...
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