MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine team off to France for Paris Club debt talks

Superminister Massa is expected to travel next month to close the deal

A technical team headed by Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Census Chief Marco Lavagna is on its way to Paris to renegotiate the nearly US$ 2.500 billion debt the South American country has with 24 agencies and banks from 16 countries.

Lavagna and Economy Ministry head advisor Leonardo Madcur are to prepare the ground for when Superminister Sergio Massa travels in November to close a deal with the Paris Club. Argentina hopes to negotiate with the Paris Club an extension of the repayment terms and a reduction in the interest rate after paying some US$ 417 million between July 2021 and February 2022.

The Government also reached an agreement with the Club in May to postpone payments until September 30, 2024, while negotiations to restructure such commitments progressed.

The main Paris Club creditors are Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and the United States.

The Argentine mission seeks better diplomatic results when global growth has been virtually halted and geopolitical tensions surge by the hour.

After collecting some 5,000 million “soy dollars,” the Central Bank also took delivery of US$ 700 million from an Inter-American Development Bank loan last week to reach US$ 7 billion in reserves.

But agricultural production is to slow down inevitably as a result of a persistent drought, which will be mitigated somehow by an increase in the price of wheat when there is a lot less to sell since the harvest is expected to fall by about 6%. Although prices have rebounded this year as a result of the war in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that non-energy commodities will fall 6.2% in 2023 (after a 7.3% increase in 2022).

The IMF warned in its latest World Economic Outlook in October that “the worst is yet to come.”