BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Argentina on Wednesday offered 781 million U.S. dollars on the market in an unsuccessful bid to shore up the peso's slide against the bullish dollar.
However, sales made little difference, with the dollar closing at 30.50 pesos at public sale, according to Argentina's National Bank.
The central bank offered cut prices of between 29.8 and 30 pesos per U.S. dollar and in one intervention offered up to 800 million U.S. dollars, of which the market took only 303 million.
The peso's value has depreciated more than 37 percent, while accumulated inflation has hit 19.6 percent, the National Statistics and Census Institute reported.
The government's economic team has taken a series of steps to stop the peso's dive, including raising the benchmark interest rate to 45 percent, now the highest in any country in the world, but their effects have been short-lived.
Initially, Argentina used funds from a 50 billion U.S. dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, but the Ministry of Economy and Finance instructed the central bank to stop offering IMF dollars and instead sell only those from its foreign reserves.
