Economy of Argentina GDP levels in the world, at par with Canada and Australia and surpassing both France and Italy. Argentina today (2018) is plagued by currency crisis which involved a potential bailout from International Monetary Fund. The currency declined by 18% over a period of 12 days in May 2018 to more than 25 Argentine pesos per U.S. Dollar. Argentina is considered an emerging market by the FTSE Global Equity Index (2018), and is one of the G-20 major economies. Prior to the 1880s, Argentina was a relatively isolated backwater, dependent on the salted meat, wool, leather, and hide industries for both
Currency mostly paper, but Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation developed the world's first polymer currency in the 1980s that went into circulation on the nation's bicentenary in 1988. Now used in some 22 countries (over 40 if counting commemorative issues), polymer currency dramatically improves the life span of banknotes and prevents counterfeiting. Currency use is based on the concept of lex monetae; that a sovereign state decides which currency it shall use. Currently, the International Organization for Standardization has introduced a three-letter system of codes (ISO 4217) to define currency (as opposed to simple names or currency signs), in