Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    BUENOS AIRES, March 30 (Xinhua) - Local media on Monday hailed the recently signed China-Argentina currency swap agreement, insisting that Argentina is able to pay for imported products from China in RMB.

    Local media expressed different points of view on the agreements, a report from the daily "Clarin" headlined "China to loan 10 billion USD to BCRA (the Central Bank of Argentina) to calm the dollar," while the daily "La Nacion" said "Historical agreement with China to eliminate the USD on commercial exchange."

    La Nacion said that the agreement signed in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, enabled "Argentina to pay its imported products from China in RMB."

    However, both newspapers mentioned that the Chinese Central Bank has signed similar agreements with emerging economies in Asialike Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong SAR of China, Belarus and Indonesia.

    The currency swap agreement is valued at 70 billion Chinese yuan (around 10.2 billion U.S. dollars).

    The agreement will help to stabilize the local exchange market, and give the Central Bank of Argentina more space to carry out the "managed floating" policy, the aim of which is to regulate the price of U.S. dollars.