Debt - external: $149 billion (1999 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $2.833 billion (1995)

Currency: 1 peso = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: peso is pegged to the US dollar at an exchange rate of 1 peso = $1

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Argentina:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 7.5 million (1997)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 1.8 million (1997)

Telephone system: 12,000 public telephones; extensive modern system but many families do not have telephones; despite extensive use of microwave radio relay, the telephone system frequently fails during rainstorms, even in Buenos Aires domestic: microwave radio relay and a domestic satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network international: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); two international gateways near Buenos Aires; Atlantis II submarine cable (1999)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM
NA (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998)