The 1998–2002 Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
The depression, which began due to the Russian and Brazilian financial crises,[1] caused widespread unemployment, riots, the fall of the government, a default on the country's foreign debt, the rise of alternative currencies and the end of the peso's fixed exchange rate to the US dollar.[7][1] The economy shrank by 20 percent from 1998 to 2002.[2][6] In terms of income, over 50 percent of Argentines were poor and 25 percent, indigent; seven out of ten Argentine children were poor at the depth of the crisis in 2002.[1][6]
By the first half of 2003 GDP growth had returned, surprising economists and the business media,[8][9] and the economy began to grow at an average 9% per year.[10][11] Argentina's GDP exceeded pre-crisis levels by 2005, and Argentine debt restructuring that year were resumed payments on most of its defaulted bonds; a second debt restructuring in 2010 brought the percentage of bonds out of default to 93%, though holdout lawsuits led by vulture funds remained ongoing.[12][13] Bondholders who participated in the restructuring have been paid punctually and have seen the value of their bonds rise.[14][15] Argentina repaid its IMF loans in full in 2006.[16]