On June 7, a month after requesting a lifeline to prop up its plunging currency, Argentina declared that it had reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a three-year, $50bn standby lending arrangement.

The financial deal was aimed at providing breathing space for the government and reassuring nervous investors in the face of deepening concerns over a gaping fiscal deficit, skyrocketing inflation and pressing debt obligations.

Yet, things don’t seem to have gone as hoped.

In August, the peso dropped more than 25 percent against the US dollar and has now lost more than half its value since the start of the year.

In response, Argentina’s central bank raised interest rates to a world record 60 percent, while President Mauricio Macri announced a series of “emergency” measures to eliminate the primary fiscal deficit, including cutting the number of government ministries and raising export taxes.

The belt-tightening measures have seen Argentinians, many of whom blame the IMF’s policies for a devastating economic collapse in the early 2000s, take to the streets in recent weeks amid growing anger over spending cuts and rising consumer prices.

So how did Argentina reach this point? Al Jazeera takes a look.