The South American economic crisis is the economic disturbances which have developed in 2002 in the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The Argentinian economy was suffering from sustained deficit spending and an extremely high debt overhang, and one of its attempted reforms included fixing its exchange rates to the US dollar. When Brazil, as its largest neighbor and trading partner, devalued its own currency in 1999, the Argentinian peg to the US dollar prevented it from matching ever part of that devaluation, leaving its tradeable goods to be less competitive with Brazilian exports.