MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: no agreement yet with holdouts from 2005 debt restructuring

Economy minister Amado Boudou who is intent in having Argentina return to money markets.

Argentina has not yet reached a definitive agreement with holdouts from its 2005 debt restructuring, the country's Economy Minister Amado Boudou said on Monday. He added that Argentina's economic strategy is “to access the international markets in order to obtain credits”.

Boudou said there were talks going on with the so-called holdouts, owners of defaulted Argentine bonds that did not enter the 2005 debt restructure. However, he denied reports that the government and the bondholders had reached an agreement on the terms of a re-opening.

Argentina hopes to resolve this year its defaulted debt to the Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations, he said in a meeting with foreign correspondents.

“We are holding discussions with different groups, banks and funds, who are the main holders of the bonds, trying to reach an understanding. But so far we have not come to a definitive strategy”, said Boudou

Argentina is attempting to normalize relations with money markets (and access to voluntary credit), which have been interrupted since the 2001 massive sovereign default

However Argentina is trying to establish a difference between the so called “vulture funds which acquired the bonds at rock bottom prices, simply to begin demands against the issuing countries” and those who did not join the bond exchange of 2005 “following on financial advice or any other decision which ended proving they were wrong”, underlined Boudou.

In related news Boudou said that Brazil and Argentina have “complementation factors and asymmetries, besides other areas that need strengthening” but under no circumstances can it be said that Brazil is “an elephant of which we should be aware of.“

There have been growing criticisms in Argentina of what has been described as an “exaggerated Brazil dependency”, since the neighbouring country is by far the main trade partner.

Likewise, the Minister remarked that ”it is important that the Brazilian economy keeps growing as it makes, for example, the Argentine automakers to grow as well.“

The minister also commented that ”Argentina's economy is just starting an acceleration burst after six slow initial months this year”.

Boudou should be joining President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in New York on Tuesday for the United Nations meeting, and then will head to Pittsburgh on Thursday to participate at the G20 summit. He also has scheduled a meeting with representatives from the Club of Paris.