The program of bond repurchase was announced by Sergio Massa on January 18. The Government has spent about $404 million buying market bonds with a face value of more than $1.1 billion.according to Portfolio Personal Inversiones (PPI), a local firm.
Moody’s considered the move to be a “dangerous exchange” equivalent to a default, while S&P Global Ratings called it “opportunistic” and comparable to a debt restructuring by affirming its sovereign debt rating.
“The team has been working with the Argentine authorities on this plan with the debt repurchase (…) first on the scale of this, how it is being operated and then on how it fits into the program,” Chalk said in an interview with Reuters.
The official added that the next review of the program – a regular assessment that determines whether the next round of cash will be released to Argentine authorities – will consider whether the targets have been met by end-December.
“But obviously that review has a forward-looking element to it and we want to have some reassurance that the reservations will be met going forward as well,” he said.
Gross reserves total some 42.3 billion dollars, according to the Central Bank as of January 27, while Moody’s and PPI calculations place them closer to 6 billion dollars.
“According to our estimates, net reserve inventories end January at $6.1 billion, down almost $2 billion in the month, mainly due to coupon payments of $1.05 billion,” the local firm told Reuters. .
Argentina has the largest active program with the IMF, an extended facility plan worth $44 billion at the time it was announced, in March 2022.
Some $24 billion has already been disbursed, most of which has been used to repay a failed 2018 program fund. The original program goals called for Argentina to accumulate $4 billion more in reserves this year.
Source: Ambito
