Argentina asked the IMF to restructure its debt payments on the US$56 billion bail-out loan agreed last year in a bid to calm market turbulence, Argentine Minister of Finance Hernan Lacunza said on Wednesday.
Following the announcement, the IMF said in a statement that it would “continue to stand with Argentina during these challenging times.”
Recession-hit Argentina has suffered market volatility since business-friendly Argentine President Mauricio Macri was trounced in party primaries three weeks ago by leftist challenger Alberto Fernandez.
Debt repayments are due to begin in 2021, while the latest loan disbursement of US$5.4 billion is expected next month.
Lacunza said the government has “proposed the start of a dialogue to roll back the debt repayments.”
However, he said that while those talks would begin before the Oct. 27 general election, they would not be finished until after the new government takes over on Dec. 10.
The request for repayment extensions aims to allow the next government to “deploy its policies without financial restrictions.”
An IMF delegation was visiting Argentina this week to review the loan, but is now returning to Washington as scheduled, fund spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement that described talks with Lacunza and others as “productive.”
“Regarding the debt operation announced by the Argentine authorities today, fund staff is in the process of analyzing them and assessing their impact,” Rice said.
“Staff understands that the authorities have taken these important steps to address liquidity needs and safeguard reserves,” he added.
Lacunza also announced other initiatives to postpone the payment of bonds to institutional investors, relieving the pressure on international reserves so they can be used to stabilize the currency.
The nation’s central bank on Tuesday bought US$300 million in pesos to try to calm markets, but the currency still depreciated by almost 2.5 percent.
The currency weakened by 20 percent alone in the week after the primaries, while the Buenos Aires stock exchange dropped by 30 percent.
Just under two weeks ago, ratings agencies Fitch and S&P downgraded Argentina’s credit rating from “B” to “CCC” and “B-” respectively.
Fernandez had romped to victory, in what was essentially a de facto opinion poll, with 47 percent of the vote to Macri’s 32 percent.
Such a result in October’s election would send Fernandez — who has been highly critical of the IMF loan — to the presidential palace without need for a run-off in November.
“The loan received by the country and the set of conditions associated with it have failed to generate any of the desired results,” Fernandez’s team said in a statement on Monday after his meeting with IMF representatives in Buenos Aires.
“There has been no letup in the contraction of the economy, a worsening of employment and the situation of businesses and families. There hasn’t been a sustained drop in inflation and public debt hasn’t ceased to grow,” the statement said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies
RSS