When Alberto Cavallo was a child growing up in Argentina in the late 1980s, the Latin American country was suffering one of its occasional crises. Inflation was rampant, making even shopping trips a hectic daily dash.

Mr Cavallo and his mother would go to the bank every day and withdraw just enough pesos for the necessary purchases, keeping the rest of their savings in dollars. They would then run to the local shop and grab what they needed as quickly as possible, hoping to get to the counter before the price list was updated again. 

“If we didn’t get to the cash register in time then we had to go back to the bank and start again,” he recalls ruefully.