AP/Victor R. Caivano

Luis Caputo, governor of Argentina's central bank, resigned Tuesday after three months on the job.

The Argentine peso was down more than 5% following the news.

Watch the peso trade in real time here.

The head of Argentina's central bank unexpectedly resigned Tuesday after three months on the job, delivering a blow to the worst-performing currency of 2018.

The central bank said in a statement that Luis Caputo resigned for personal reasons. The peso, which has lost more than half of its value this year, spiraled more than 5% to 39.2243 per dollar following the news.

Caputo's exit comes amid negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which in June extended Argentina the largest credit line in its history.

President Mauricio Macri asked to renegotiate terms of the agreement last month in hopes of speeding up bailout payments. The IMF, which did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment, has so far extended $15 billion to the country and was expected to disburse an additional $3 billion in September.

In August, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 60%, the highest in the world.

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