Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will attend this Tuesday the leaders' summit of Mercosur in Caracas, Venezuela. The president will travel to Caracas in order to participate in a congress originally scheduled for December 17, but which suffered several postponements.
The IMF's chief economist warned that a default by Argentina in its battle with holders of its defaulted debt may hurt its economy and the global financial system. Argentina continues to face the fallout of its 2001 debt default, which plunged the country into an economic crisis it is still battling to overcome.
NML Capital Ltd, one of the lead holdout creditors in Argentina's sovereign bond dispute said on Thursday the Argentine government refused to negotiate through a mediator and was all but preparing to default on already restructured debt.
Daniel A. Pollack, the Special Master appointed by Judge Thomas P. Griesa to conduct and preside over settlement negotiations between Argentina and the holdouts from speculative funds said that Thursday's meeting had failed and announced a new audience for Friday at 10:00 in the morning in New York.
The following piece was written by Floyd Norris, financial analyst from The New York Times and refers to the complicated process that has emerged from the ongoing battle between Argentina and the holdouts demanding full payment of sovereign bonds, plus accrued interests.
In a defiant speech President Cristina Fernández reiterated on Wednesday that Argentina will not fall into default and warned that they will have to invent a new word to explain how a country has paid its debt and someone blocked it.
Argentina reacted strongly to Tuesday's events in the New York federal court which denied its stay request, claiming Judge Thomas Griesa did not solve absolutely any of the issues for which he summoned today's audience, insisting with his unbelievable ban on structured bonds' collecting their payment.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández rejected on Wednesday the possibility of a new default during the UNASUR-BRICS meeting in Brasilia, highlighting Argentina is going to “keep on paying and honoring its debt,” while asking for support against the “so called vulture funds,” who are “pretending to collapse the Argentine debt restructuring.”
The American Task Force Argentina (ATFA), the group the government of President Cristina Fernandez has officially accused of being funded by same holdout creditors suing Argentina over its defaulted bonds, has resumed its advertisement campaign against Buenos Aires now saying the Kirchner administration is actually “choosing” a default scenario.
The holdout speculative funds or “vulture funds” are going after Argentina’s resource-rich Vaca Muerta region and are seeking to threaten the government with a “technical default” scenario, economist Agustín D’Atellis.