Since Octoberfunds abroad. In 2011, the Argentine government has expanded the restrictions on access to the foreign exchange market and transfers of foreign currency abroad. Through a combination of foreign exchange and tax regulations, the Argentine authorities havehad significantly curtailed access to foreign exchange by individuals and private sector entities. Current foreign exchange regulations include,entities, making it necessary, among others, the obligationother things, to obtain prior approval byfrom the Central Bank ofto enter into certain foreign exchange transactions such as payments relating to royalties, services or fees payable to related parties of Argentine companies outside Argentina (pursuant to section 3.4Argentina.

Anongoing economic slowdown suggests uncertainty as to whether the economic growth experienced in the past decade may beis sustainable. This is mainly because economic growth was initially dependent on a significant devaluation of the Argentine Peso, excess production capacity resulting from a long period of deep recession and high commodity prices. Furthermore, the economy has suffered from a sustained erosion of direct investment and capital investment. After the 2001 economic crisis, Argentina recovered with significant increases in gross domestic product (“GDP”) at an average of 8.5% on an annual basis between 2003 and 2008. As a result of the 2008 global financial crisis, Argentina GDP’s growth rate decreased to 0.9% in 2009, though growth rebounded to 9.2% in 2010 and 8.9% in 2011. During 2012, the Argentine economy experienced a slowdown, with GDP increasing at a rate of 1.9%. In March 2014, the Argentine government announced a new method of calculating GDP as requested by the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) (using 2004 as the base year instead of 1993, which was the base reference year used in the prior method of GDP calculation). Following changes in the methodology used in calculating GDP, the National Institute of Statistics (“Instituto(Instituto Nacional de EstadísticasEstadisticas y Censos”Censos or “INDEC”) as per its acronym in Spanish) reported that Argentina’s GDP’s growth rate for 2013 was 3% and, 0.5% for 2014. This2014, this decrease was principally due to the deceleration of the global economy and prevailing macroeconomic conditions in Argentina during 2014.2014, and 2.3% for 2015. As of July 31, 2015,2016, the Monthly Economic Activity Estimator (Estimador Mensual de Actividad Económica, or the “EMAE”) increased 2.7%decreased 5.9%, relative to the same period in the prior year, according to data published by the INDEC. Argentina’s relative stability since 2002 has been affected by increased social and political tension and government intervention in the economy.

Argentina’s 2001 default and its failure to fully restructure its sovereign debt and negotiate withdata published by the holdout creditors has limited and may continue to limit Argentina’s ability to access international capital markets. In 2005, Argentina completedINDEC, the restructuringrate of a substantial portion of its indebtedness and settled all of its debt with the IMF. Additionally,inflation reached 10.9% in June 2010, Argentina completed the renegotiation of approximately 67% of the defaulted bonds that were not swapped9.5% in 2011, 10.8% in 2012, 10.9% in 2013, 23.9% in 2014, 11.9% in the 2005 restructuring. As a resultten-month period ended October, 31 2015. In response, the prior Argentine administration implemented programs to control inflation and monitor prices for essential goods and services, including freezing the prices of the 2005key products and 2010 debt swaps, Argentina has restructured approximately 92.4% of its defaulted debt that was eligible for restructuring. Holdout creditors that declined to participate in the exchanges commenced numerous lawsuits against Argentina in several countries, including the United States, Italy, Germany,services, and Japan. Additionally, on May 29, 2014,price support arrangements agreed between the Argentine government and representatives of the Paris Club creditors reached an agreement to clear Argentina’s debt due to the Paris Club creditors,private sector companies in arrears, in the total amount of US$9.7 billion as of April 30, 2014.several industries and markets.

On September 11, 2014, the Argentine Congress enacted Law No.26,984, with the purpose of implementing legal mechanisms to allow restructured bondholders to collect payments under such bonds. Law No.26,984 established a new account in the name of Nación Fideicomisos S.A. with the Central Bank in order to make payments to restructured bondholders. Furthermore, Law No.26,984 set forth that the executive branch could implement an exchange of restructured bonds for Argentine law-governed bonds and for French law-governed bonds. As of the date of this annual report, no such mechanism has been implemented by the Argentine government. Separately, during August 2014 the Central Bank revoked The Bank of New York Mellon’s authorization to operate in Argentina. In connection with these and other actions takenfuture, by the Argentine government the District Court held Argentina in contempt on September 29, 2014.to control inflation may have. If inflation remains high or continues to rise, Argentina’s economy may be negatively impacted and our results of operations could be materially affected.