The Argentine economy is based primarily on the production of agricultural products and the raising of livestock, but manufacturing and mining industries have shown marked growth in recent decades. Argentina is one of the world’s leading cattle- and grain-producing regions; the country’s main manufacturing enterprises are meat-packing and flour-milling plants. Argentina’s national budget in 1998 called for revenue of $41.1 billion and expenditure of $46 billion. Argentina’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 1999 was $283.2 billion.

Argentina's economy, which is one of the more powerful in the region, has been dominated by manufacturing and agriculture since the 19th century, but its service sector has grown increasingly important. Argentina produces more grain and raises more cattle than any nation in Latin America except Brazil, and its receipts from tourism are second in the region only to those of Mexico. Its gross national product (GNP), GNP per capita, and value added from manufacturing are also among the highest in the region.

Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. However, when President Carlos MENEM took office in 1989, the country had piled up huge external debts, inflation had reached 200% per month, and output was plummeting. To combat the economic crisis, the government embarked on a path of trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. In 1991, it implemented radical monetary reforms which pegged the peso to the US dollar and limited the growth in the monetary base by law to the growth in reserves. Inflation fell sharply in subsequent years. In 1995, the Mexican peso crisis produced capital flight, the loss of banking system deposits, and a severe, but short-lived, recession; a series of reforms to bolster the domestic banking system followed. Real GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in 1997. In 1998, international financial turmoil caused by Russia's problems and increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the highest domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving the growth rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP falling by 3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in December 1999, sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit, which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. Growth in 2000 was a disappointing 0.8%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain its fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. One bright spot at the start of 2001 was the IMF's offer of $13.7 billion in support.