Argentina

Governments have a long history of borrowing abroad and not repaying their debts. The first recorded sovereign default was in the 4th century BC when ten Greek cities failed to honour loans from the temple of Delos. Yet there are still no clear rules governing what happens when sovereigns do not pay up, The Economist reported. The murkiness was highlighted this week when Argentina seemed to offer, under duress, to negotiate with the 8% of its bondholders who refused to accept any losses after a huge default in 2001.

Argentina is being pushed toward a new default after a U.S. Supreme Court decision favored holdout creditors seeking payment on bonds it defaulted on in 2001-2002, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof warned United Nations diplomats on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Referring to those creditors as "vulture funds," Kicillof said the June 16 decision by the top U.S. court to deny Argentina the chance to appeal a lower court ruling means it faces an insurmountable payment to all existing bondholders, given it has just $28.5 billion in foreign currency reserves.

Argentina asked a U.S. judge on Monday to issue a stay of his ruling against the country in its case against "holdout" creditors, as it sought to avoid a new default that would further punish an economy already slipping into recession, Reuters reported. The move is the latest twist in a 12-year-old battle with investors who refused to take part in bond restructurings after Argentina failed to pay about $100 billion of debt in 2002. Without a stay on a ruling by U.S.

Argentina has made a key concession in its long-running dispute with a group of so-called holdout creditors after agreeing to a meeting in New York next week to discuss debt repayments that could help the nation avert a looming default., the Financial Times reported. The holdouts, consistently described as “vultures” by government officials, are made up largely of a group of hedge funds that did not participate in the country’s two previous debt restructurings.

Argentina, looking to skirt a U.S. court ruling forcing it to pay holders of defaulted debt, will seek investor backing for a plan to move the rest of its international bonds into the local market, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said, Bloomberg News reported. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s administration has studied “extensively” the process to shift bondholders into the domestic market via a debt exchange and will meet with lawmakers to discuss the plans tomorrow, Kicillof told reporters today in Buenos Aires. At the same time, Argentina will send its lawyers to speak with U.S.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed Argentina a major setback in its long-running battle with a small group of determined creditors, heightening the risk the country will default for the second time in 13 years, The Wall Street Journal reported. The justices on Monday rejected Argentina's appeal of a lower-court ruling that said the country can't make bond payments until it compensates hedge funds that refused to accept restructured debt in the years following Argentina's 2001 default.

Argentina has reached a landmark deal with the Paris Club of creditor nations to pay a longstanding $9.7bn debt in its latest move to win back confidence from international capital markets, the Financial Times reported. After marathon negotiations in Paris, ending after midnight on Wednesday, Argentina agreed to pay the debt that remained from its 2001 default over five to seven years. The government will pay $650m in July, and a further $500m by May 2015. The deal marks an important step in Argentina’s efforts to attract foreign investment.

Argentina's government stressed on Tuesday that it will continue to service restructured debt regardless of the outcome of its legal fight with bondholders who refused to accept its debt-restructuring offers, Reuters reported. The government laid out its position in a statement ahead of filing its latest court papers in the U.S. Supreme Court in the high-profile litigation. The nine justices are set to consider whether to hear Argentina's appeal on June 12.

Argentina’s biggest unions paralyzed metro, train and bus services today and blocked the main entrances into the capital to protest rising prices and crime, Bloomberg News reported. Trash started to pile up in downtown Buenos Aires as garbage collection was suspended and union members blocked Corrientes, one of the main thoroughfares with a sign that read “enough economic adjustments,” a reference to a 19 percent devaluation in January and a sharp increase in interest rates.

Argentina has added more than 100 consumer products to a controversial price control program as the government grapples with one of the highest rates of inflation in the world, The Wall Street Journal reported. Inflation is widely thought to be more than 30% following the devaluation of the Argentine peso in January and the government's habit of financing deficits through money printing. Instead of making unpopular spending cuts to tame inflation, President Cristina Kirchner has capped prices on almost 200 basic consumer goods and almost doubled benchmark interest rates.