After the “risks” denounced by the opposition, the government resumed negotiations with the banks on Monday to complete a debt super-conversion. Sergio Massa’s team today at noon he received the representatives of the main banks on the fifth floor of the Ministry of the Economywhere they tried to put a cold cloth on the explosive statement released yesterday by Together for Change with strong questions about the financial operation.
“They want to make noise”they said in the corridors of the Palacio de Hacienda, a few minutes before the start of the conclave in the Sala Belgrano. Massa tries to reset the deadlines of the next three months prior to STEP e postpone them to 2024 and 2025, during the next administration. But the opposition yesterday remarked on the field, warning him the government’s “maneuver” “will only lead to greater instability” and could generate an “even greater inflationary leap”.
The minister could attend the meeting this Monday, where the authorities are betting on the closure of negotiations and the easing of payment prospects for the next three months. According to private calculations, at that time 5 trillion dollars. The idea is to extend them to 2024 and 2025 with two baskets of bonds, mainly inflation-adjusted bonds (CERs) and to a lesser extent dual bonds, which offer the best result between CPI and dollar.
The opposition had already set its sights in February on debt swaps, dual bonds and high rates. The intervention of the banks has calmed the tensions, but this Sunday they re-emerged with a new alarm on the “serious risks” of granting them bonds adjustable for inflation and devaluation (“an option that no investor has”) and the possibility to sell them to the Central Bank at any time (“the put”).
In response to the criticisms, the president of ADEBA, Javier Bolzico, yesterday defended the initiative stating that “banks have a smaller percentage of total debt. Therefore to say that he is ‘with the banks’ is -at least- fallacious”. He also defended the guarantees that will be offered to the banks. “A put is an option to sell an asset at a pre-determined fixed price,” the banker said.
In the midst of these tensions, the head of the cabinet of the economy, Leonardo Madcur, the deputy minister Gabriel Rubinstein, and the finance secretary, Eduardo Setti, received the head of the Association of Argentine Banks (ADEBA), Javier Bolzico, executives of the Association of Argentine Banks (ABA) and of Public and Private Banks (Abappra). Also present were the head of the Central Bank, Miguel Pesce, and the vice president, Lisandro Cleri.
under development
Source: Clarin
