After a day of good news following the Senate's broad approval of the Bases Law bill in addition to an arrangement with China to extend the currency swap in force, Argentine President Javier Milei and his entourage left for Borgo Egnazia, Italy, to attend the G7 Summit, during which he plans to hold talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, among other world leaders.
China and Argentina signed a US$ 9 billion currency swap agreement to boost the South American country’s foreign currency reserves, its central bank announced on Sunday.
As China establishes itself as the world’s second largest economy and top trading nation, its currency, the renminbi (RMB), is also gaining popularity around the world. According to the People’s Bank of China’s 2015 Renminbi Internationalization Report, the RMB was the world’s 5th most used payment currency, the 2nd most used trade finance currency, and the 6th most traded currency in 2014.
Venezuela is evaluating a swap agreement involving gold reserves as a way to fortify dollar supplies in a country which suffers chronic product shortages and inflation close to 55%. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said last week that the government was negotiating a swap operation with Goldman Sachs involving 1.45 million ounces of gold worth around 1.86 billion dollars.
Argentina is negotiating with China a new 10 billon dollars equivalent swap of international reserves support based on the experience of 2009 when the global financial crisis. The new accord should theoretically help Argentina strengthen its international position vis-à-vis the run on the dollar (or the flight from the Peso) and which has cost the Central bank 4 billion dollars so far this year.
Argentina’s attempts to return to global credit markets nine years after its 2001/02 default received this week mixed results. New York Federal Judge Thomas Griesa has issued a ruling urging Argentina to pay 54.33 million Euros (US$75.1 million) to the Capital Ventures International Fund.
In an extensive report, the Task Force Argentina (TFA)—which represents Italians holding some 4.5 billion US dollars in defaulted Argentine sovereign bonds—gave an ambiguous declaration over Argentina's debt-swap plan.
Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou held a meeting Tuesday with 40 international investors at the New York Palace Hotel, within the framework of his United States road show to encourage bondholders to join the Government's debt-swap.
The Argentine government has published the offer to swap 20 billion US dollars in defaulted bonds on specialized media around the globe and on www.argentina2010offer.com website.