China agrees to lend struggling Argentina $7.5b

China on Friday signed deals to lend US$7.5 billion to Argentina, the South American nation that is struggling to borrow from global markets, Reuters reported. Among the deals signed, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed on a loan for US$4.7 billion from the China Development Bank for the construction of two hydroelectric dams in Patagonia. The Chinese policy bank also granted a US$2.1 billion loan to help finance a long-delayed railway project that would make it more efficient to transport grains from Argentina’s agricultural plains to its ports.