BUENOS AIRES, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's currency continued its downward spiral on Friday, hitting a record low of 23.72 pesos to the U.S. dollar, according to state news agency Telam.
The peso plunged below 24 early in the day, leading the central bank (BCRA) to sell more than 1.1 billion dollars in cash.
Some banks in the capital Buenos Aires were selling dollars for as high as 25 pesos, marking a 7-percent drop in value compared to the day before.
On Thursday, the dollar closed at 23.22 pesos to buy at exchange houses and 22.80 pesos at the interbank rate and wholesale operations, after the central bank sold some 139.5 million dollars in foreign reserves.
Friday's devaluation comes amid negotiations between the government of President Mauricio Macri and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has agreed to give the South American country a credit line, experts say could range from 20 billion to 30 billion dollars.
Argentina is racing to conclude the talks as next week, some 600 billion pesos (about 26 billion dollars) in short-term debt bonds (Lebacs) issued by the central bank expire. Analysts expect the bank to raise interest rates even higher to coax bondholders into renewing them.
The peso fell about 11 percent against the dollar at the start of May, leading the BCRA to hike interest rates to 40 percent, in a bid to make the currency more attractive to investors and savers.
It also made some 1.5 billion dollars available on the market by lowering foreign exchange holdings at banks and financial institutions from 30 percent to 10 percent.
