ARGENTINA TO FLOAT AUSTRAL: Argentina’s new economy...

ARGENTINA TO FLOAT AUSTRAL: Argentina’s new economy minister, Antonio Erman Gonzalez, announced that the country’s currency, the austral, will be allowed to float against the dollar and that all foreign-exchange controls will be scrapped as part of a plan to beat the country’s hyper-inflation. In a speech made just after being sworn in by President Carlos Menem, Gonzalez said he also would end all price controls as well as an 11% rise in duty on farm exports that his predecessor, Nestor Rapanelli, announced last week. He did not specify when the new measures would take effect.