Argentina's economy contracted during the first quarter of the year as high inflation and weak exports to top trade partner Brazil took a toll. During the first three months of the year, GDP fell by 0.2% on the year and contracted 0.8% on the quarter, the national statistics agency Indec reported Monday.
Mercosur and Celac country-members expressed support for Argentina and its ongoing litigation with the holdout hedge funds, particularly last week's decision from the US Supreme Court, (which refused to consider the case), and the financial consequences emerging from such a position.
Argentina on Sunday took its battle against paying hedge fund investors in its defaulted bonds to the US media, placing adverts in major newspapers demanding US courts help foster fair and balanced negotiations.
The following letter under the heading of “Urgent need for legislation on Argentina debt” was published in the Financial Times and refers to the ongoing battle with the holdout hedge funds.The piece is signed by Tim Jones, Policy Officer, Jubilee Debt Campaign, London, N1, UK.
US Federal Judge Thomas Griesa, ratified on Friday through an official letter that Argentina’s proposal to carry out a debt exchange and pay its bondholders in Buenos Aires represents a “violation of the rulings and procedures.”
In a conciliatory speech compared to previous statements, President Cristina Fernandez said on Friday her government would negotiate with all of Argentina's creditors in a bid to avoid a new debt default that would further weaken the country's ailing economy.
The Uruguay-Germany commerce and industry chamber (AHK), expressed its deepest concern over the current tension in relations between Uruguay and Argentina, and warned about the impact on the business climate for the two countries.
Argentina and Brazil have again clashed not over football but over trade and Mercosur according to the Sao Paulo media. Brazil believes there is a lack of ambition from Argentina to finish polishing the proposal to be exchanged with the European Union for a much delayed cooperation and trade agreement.
Cristina Fernandez on her Friday Flag Day speech in which she lowered usual rhetoric and asked US Judge Thomas Griesa for negotiations with the holdout hedge funds, picked on the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute to channel her fury and forecasted there “is no colonialism that can last so many centuries, eventually they fall”.
After a day of fury and discussions with cabinet members, advisors and experts, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez will be sending a government delegation to New York to meet Judge Thomas Griesa and the hedge funds holdouts' solicitors and begin, hopefully, a round of negotiations to reach a settlement on the bonds litigation.