MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina will continue to honor its debt, and has cleared all 2019 payments
Argentina announced it would proceed to pay the Discount and Centenary bonds, totaling the equivalent of some 550 million dollars, which means the country will have paid all maturing bonds in 2019 The Argentine government will continue to honor its debt while it works to reach an agreement with creditors, both the IMF and private bond holders, with the purpose of refinancing commitments and achieve a long term sustainable path for the payments, according to sources from the Economy ministry.
With the implementation of this strategy, Argentina announced this week it would proceed to pay the Discount and Centenary bonds, totaling the equivalent of some 550 million dollars, which means the country will have paid all maturing bonds in 2019, thus avoiding “a new court problem”. It will now have to concentrate in 2020, when most maturing takes place and hopefully, Argentina following negotiations can postpone for several years the payments' calendar, while the economy generates sufficient genuine dollars to ensure a manageable level of debt.
Allegedly the new Argentine government intention of renegotiating bonds maturing dates spurred a good reaction from investors, and this was seen in the strong revaluation of government bonds, mainly those nominated in Pesos.
Meantime the Economy minister Martin Guzmán anticipated the postponement of Treasury Bills maturing payments until next 31st August, equivalent to some 9 billion dollars of which US$ 6.5bn are in private hands.
This should give government some breathing space while the ministry invites investors to purchase Treasury bills in Pesos maturing in April and June, with generous interest rates.
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Read all commentsThey seem to be at least trying to avoid the default battles of CFK, I wonder how sustainable “generous interest rates” are.
Dec 30th, 2019 - 03:02 pm 0This is probably going to end in at least a “hair cut” on the debt, to make it manageable.
That should be a process that at least can be managed this time round.
Certain types of investments pay well, even very well, because of the level of risk attached.
Ultimately, for this Gov it will depend on whether they can get the economy working.
A new breeze is blowing through Argentina, and it's one of hope.
Dec 28th, 2019 - 09:52 pm -1After four years in which none of the campaign promises was kept, where instead inflation festered and the domestic sector of the economy was ignored, wages were flattened and purchase power dwindled, the first economic measures of new president Alberto Fernandez signal a 180-degree change.
It remains that the opposition and their friendly media have not given the new administration the slightest honeymoon, but instead attempted to block it from day 1.
Which was to be expected.
P-H
Jan 02nd, 2020 - 01:01 am -1“Ultimately, for this Gov it will depend on whether they can get the economy working.”
Under former president Mauricio Macri, jobs were lost, purchase power plummeted, and businesses started to go belly up because they could not sell.
This is exactly what president Alberto Fernandez wants to do: to restart the economy from the bottom up -- that is, to improve the income of the less fortunate so that they immediately spend and inject those extra pesos into the economic circuit.
Fernandez' margin of maneuver is narrow because former president Mauricio Macri left a foreign debt the size of a GDP; the new Macrist opposition and the dominant media know this and they are playing fast and furious to erode the citizens' trust -- nothing could be more damaging to the dominant sectors than a tangible improvement of the citizens' situation in the next three to four years.
If the pace of the first three weeks is any hint, the government will accomplish quite a bit in its first year. Fernandez has said the Legislature and government officials will keep working through the summer. That already is quite different from what the previous government did.
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