Confusion over 'argentino'

Just over $10bn worth of the agrentino, which is backed by government assets including (according to comments by Argentine President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa) the presidential palace, are to be printed, with the aim of increasing liquidity and revitalising the economy. The relationship between the peso and the dollar remains unclear however as Mr Frigeri told Buenos Aires' Clarin newspaper 'This will allow us ... to begin an orderly exit from convertibility and give us a tool to boost economic recovery,'. It has been reported that the government is trying to hand responsibility for the argentino to the central bank in an attempt to increase credibility for the new currency.

Newspapers in Argentina printed colourful graphs with titles like "How to pay with the new currency" amid widespread confusion over who would be paid in argentinos, how much they would be worth, and where they would be accepted in a country where 80 percent of private debt is held in dollars. Many shopkeepers, however, have begun lifting prices already.

Mr. Frigeri sought to dispel fears saying "There will not be, as some people fear, a downpour of the new currency. We will be very prudent with the process." However memories of the austral and the hyperinflation of the 1980s are still fresh in many people's minds; as one resident of Buenos Aires said to Reuters: 'I wouldn't be surprised if people come [to shops] with fists full of them and can't buy a thing.'