Argentina unveils 'emergency' austerity measures

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Mauricio Macri has announced he was slashing his government's bureaucracy in half and restoring taxes on grain exporters as part of sweeping new austerity measures to stabilize the economy.

His center-right government also aims to persuade the International Monetary Fund to speed up a $50 billion loan program.

The president admitted in a speech to the nation that Argentina was facing "an emergency" after its currency, the peso, lost more than half its dollar value this year.