Argentina

Holders of Argentina’s $15bn in provincial debt are growing nervous that pressure from the national government is behind “arbitrary” demands for debt restructurings, threatening investors with big losses, the Financial Times reported. After the successful restructuring of $65bn in sovereign debt with foreign creditors in August, Argentina’s leftist government is now locked in talks with the IMF to renegotiate the repayment of $44bn lent since a currency crisis in 2018. Foreign creditors to Argentina’s provinces are next in line.

Argentina’s Buenos Aires province has extended an already-delayed deadline to Jan. 4 for bondholders to agree a deal to restructure some $7 billion in foreign debt, the local government said in a statement late on Monday, Reuters reported. The extension comes as the latest deadline came and went on Friday without an agreement with its creditors. “The Ministry of Finance will continue to dialogue in good faith with external private creditors,” the district said in the statement announcing the extension on its website.

Negotiations between the International Monetary Fund and Argentina over a new IMF loan program are “very fluid and constructive,” with Argentine officials expected to come to Washington in the coming days for more talks, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Rice told a regular news briefing that a recent IMF staff mission to Buenos Aires, made “good progress” in defining the initial elements of Argentina’s economic reform plans.

Argentine officials will travel to the United States on Thursday to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the country renegotiates already-disbursed loans of about $44 billion, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The fund said at the end of November that it had begun to outline, together with Argentina, a new program to help the government face the country’s profound economic and social challenges, which have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Argentina’s Chubut Province said on Saturday it had struck a debt deal in principle with a majority of its creditors after a successful sovereign debt restructuring earlier this year opened the door for local governments to resolve their regional crises, Reuters reported. Chubut and its bondholders will restructure $680 million in bonds originally set to mature in 2026, exchanging them for bonds due in July 2030, the province said in a statement.

Argentina hiked interest rates on Thursday after monthly inflation accelerated to the highest level this year, a move aimed at bolstering peso savings and reining in prices amid a wider economic crisis, Reuters reported. The central bank raised the benchmark Leliq rate to 38% from 36% previously after the country’s statistics agency had revealed October inflation speeding up to 3.8% and rolling 12-month inflation had been clocked at 37.2% in the month. The central bank also raised overnight and 7-day reverse repo rates.

Argentina’s international creditors, scarred by this year’s turbulent debt restructuring, want the new International Monetary Fund programme the country is seeking to come with ultra-rigorous conditions, Reuters reported. Argentina and its provinces restructured $100 billion of debt two months ago, but the country’s bonds have lost nearly 30% since their relaunch as worries about the government’s economic strategy have persisted. On Monday Economy Minister Martin Guzman, who led the restructuring for Latin America’s No.

Argentina will seek an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to replace a failed $57 billion facility, Economy Minister Guzman said on Monday, potentially buying the South American country more time to make repayments, Reuters reported. The EFF is a longer-term program that typically requires more economic reforms than a standby agreement. Argentina would expect to repay the IMF between four and a half years and 10 years after the start of the agreement, Guzman said, adding that he aimed to secure a new deal by April.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund will visit Argentina from Nov. 10 to begin formal negotiations for a new financing program, an IMF spokesman said on Friday, Reuters reported. Dialogue between the mission and Argentina will focus on the government’s fiscal agenda in the medium term “with the aim of anchoring macroeconomic stability and laying the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth,” the spokesman said in a statement, adding that there is no set date for negotiations to conclude.

Walmart Inc, the world’s largest retailer, said on Friday it was selling its retail operations in Argentina to South American supermarket chain owner Grupo de Narváez, pulling back as the country grapples with an economic crisis, Reuters reported. The U.S. company did not disclose the size of the deal for retail operations involving more than 90 stores, but said it would record about a $1 billion after-tax, non-cash loss related to the divestiture in its fiscal third quarter next year.