What happened
Argentina is in trouble, and it's showing in the stock price of one of the country's smaller financial institutions: Grupo Supervielle (SUPV -5.92%) is down 10.2% as of 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Earlier today, Argentine President Mauricio Macri warned that a dramatic weakening of the Argentine peso is driving up inflation in the country, which will probably accelerate to 3% -- per month -- by the time August is out.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Argentina's currency lost 18% of its value in the week following presidential primary elections earlier this month. It fell another 0.65% on Tuesday, prompting the country's central bank to intervene and spend $250 million supporting the currency -- "the biggest one-day intervention since the peso started falling on Aug. 12," according to Reuters.
With the value of the peso falling further by the day, the profits earned by Argentine companies such as Grupo Supervielle are likewise eroding -- prompting investors to flee this (and other Argentine) stocks.
Now what
As bad as things look today, they could soon get worse.
Representatives of the International Monetary Fund arrived in Buenos Aires over the weekend, to discuss payout (or lack thereof) of the next installment of the $57 billion that the IMF committed to stabilizing the country's economy. But presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez, now favored to replace Macri in October, spent much of Monday blaming the IMF's policies for the economic crisis; this increased pressure on Macri to refuse the funds, and certainly raised the possibility that if Fernandez is elected in October, IMF support could be cut off (at Argentina's behest).
Suffice it to say that such a development would not be good news for Grupo Supervielle -- or any other Argentine stocks for that matter.
