October
Rio Tinto’s Serbian lithium pain might be Argentina’s gain
After two decades of work to build a lithium and borates mine in Serbia, Rio Tinto has taken its billions elsewhere. Is this the end of Europe’s lithium dream?
- Peter Ker
June
Argentine Senate passes Milei reform bill as protests rage outside
The bill is key to overhauling an embattled economy, and includes plans for privatising public firms, granting special powers to the president and spurring investment.
- Nicolás Misculin and Eliana Raszewski
May
Argentina launches 10,000-peso notes, worth $17, as inflation bites
The new note, worth five times more than the previous largest note, was introduced as Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 287 per cent in March.
- Ciara Nugent
April
Javier Milei fuels wild rally that makes peso No. 1 in world
The currency has, in fact, not only stopped plunging day after day but in one key foreign exchange market, it’s actually rallying sharply.
- Ignacio Olivera Doll
January
‘Taxing parasites’: Is this the fieriest speech ever given at Davos?
Argentina’s Javier Milei set Davos alight, warning Western politicians that by trying to correct illusory market failures, they were sliding towards socialism.
- Hans van Leeuwen
The RBA will be ‘reluctant’ interest rate cutters
Bank of America economist Micaela Fuchila says the RBA will be reluctant to cut rates until 2025, given how long it will take to return inflation to target.
- Cecile Lefort
December 2023
- Analysis
- Currencies
Why investors are cheering Argentina’s ‘shock therapy’
Analysts believe the radical measures announced this week by new President Javier Milei offer a realistic opportunity to rescue the South American economy.
- Tim Wallace
Death in the Andes: a mountain gives up secrets
Fifty years after two mountaineers perished on South America’s tallest peak, a camera emerged from the ice with film that could help solve the mystery of their deaths.
- John Branch
- Opinion
- Mining
How Argentina’s Javier Milei looks set to undercut Australian lithium
The president-elect’s country holds 21 per cent of the world’s proven reserves. It is today producing just 6 per cent of supply. This is about to change.
- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
November 2023
- Opinion
- Emerging markets
Emerging markets have ignored the ‘Buenos Aires consensus’
Serial debt-defaulting countries have stunned economists by thriving though prudent policies advocated by the IMF.
- Kenneth Rogoff
Trump tells Milei he plans to visit Buenos Aires
Argentina’s president-elect, Javier Milei, earlier this year called on the former US president to “continue with his fight against socialism”.
- Daniel Politi
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Thank Britain for why Australia isn’t Argentina
Trying to understand Argentina’s failure should also make Australians think more deeply about the sources of this country’s success.
- The AFR View
Trump-loving new president’s plan to end economic chaos in Argentina
A self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, Javier Milei has proposed abolishing the central bank and taking a “chainsaw” to public spending.
- Tim Wallace and Szu Ping Chan
September 2023
Argentina considers annual tax on lithium profits, domestic quota
Argentine leaders are keen to avoid yet another resource curse in a region that has been unearthing raw materials for centuries while remaining relatively poor.
- Jonathan Gilbert
August 2023
Allkem posts record profit ahead of lithium mega-merger vote
The lithium producer’s profit soars to more than $800 million on the back of key mining operations in Western Australia and Argentina.
- Updated
- Brad Thompson
Argentina to devalue peso by 18pc, official says
The decision was an admission by Alberto Fernandez’s administration that it had run out of options, and money, to defend an unsustainable exchange rate.
- Ignacio Olivera Doll, Scott Squires and Manuela Tobias
Argentina’s commodities sector faces political upheaval
Javier Milei would scrap taxes on farm exports, meaning Argentina’s soybeans, corn, wheat and meat gain competitiveness v producers from the US to Australia.
- Jonathan Gilbert
June 2023
Glencore in talks to back Argentina lithium plant for future supply
The commodity giant is seeking an offtake agreement in exchange for helping to fund a lithium processing plant being built by France’s Eramet.
- Yvonne Yue Li, Thomas Biesheuvel and Francois de Beaupuy
May 2023
No room for the faint-hearted in lithium’s year of action
The Australian lithium sector’s time in the sun has arrived, as softening prices, sovereign risk in rival nations and US subsidies trigger a wave of deals.
- Peter Ker and Brad Thompson
March 2023
South America steps up efforts to turn lithium into batteries
Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil plan to co-ordinate action on turning more of the region’s mined lithium into battery chemicals, as well as moving into manufacturing of batteries and EVs.
- James Attwood, Jonathan Gilbert and Mariana Durao