Argentina's debt affected the country between the late 1990s and early 2000s and can be attributed to misdiagnosis and ineffective policy. During this period, the IMF and the Argentine government worked closely together. Before the crisis, Argentina was known for its economic policy and growth. The government has worked to implement conservative economic policies, including business privatization, looser business regulations, among other conservative changes. Economic growth during this period appears to have been largely the result of increasing international debt. Before the 90s were over, things started to fall apart. The crisis dates back to the 1980s, when the country experienced extreme hyperinflation. The currency swelled more than 5,000% under President Carlos Menem and his Finance Minister, Domingo Cavallo, who tried three ways to limit inflation. The first was an act of stabilization with the support of a large private company; the second attempt was to purchase certificates of deposit in government bonds (Nataraj & Sahoo 2003). After the failure of the first two methods, the third option was introduced: pegging the Argentine peso to the US dollar. To fix the exchange rate, the currency board kept dollar reserves and could not change the supply of pesos without the same change in dollars (Sergio L., Eduardo and Augusto 2003). By the mid-1990s, inflation had subsided, but the government was unable to change many of the concrete policies that stabilized inflation while hurting growth. When the debt crisis began to develop, the government was unable to increase the money supply as a way to stimulate the economy, leading to stagflation in the 1990s (Macewen 200...... middle of paper ......e World Bank .IMF. The IMF and Argentina, 1991-2001. International Monetary Fund Representative: Independent Evaluation Office, 2004. Web, April 24, 2012. .Krueger, Anne. “Crisis Prevention and Resolution: Lessons from Argentina,” Cambridge, Cambridge, July 17, 2002. Macewan, Arthur. . » Foreign Policy in Focus January 2002, Latin America and the Caribbean Sec. Nataraj, Geethanjali and Pravakar Sahoo. “The Argentine crisis: causes and consequences.” Economic and Political Weekly Print. “IMF policy and the Argentine crisis”. 34.1 (2003) : 155-87..