Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner interrogatedthrough his Twitter account, the sentence of the Justice of London which condemns the Argentine State to pay 1,330 million euros for having manipulated the INDEC data -in this case the GDP-, in order not to pay an obligation linked to the GDP coupons issued in the 2005 swap. Furthermore, he accused the newspaper clarion to lie in the published information about the sentence.
Cristina Kirchner echoed a tweet posted by Paul Lopezcurrent Minister of Finance of the Province of Buenos Aires but who in 2014 was head of the Finance Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, led in those years by Axel Kicillof.
First, Pablo Lopez tweeted to refer to the cover headline of this Thursday’s edition of the newspaper, which reads: “For lying about INDEC data, Argentina has to pay 1,330 million euros.”
In this regard, López tweeted: “Who lies is clarion: As we have already explained, the judge did not accept that argument or that there was bad faith on Argentina’s part. He agreed with them with an indefensible technicality: interpreting the bond clause, he argues that the country would have had to pay even if it grew by less than 3%. Paying would have been illogical and contrary to the spirit of the instrument, which was to pay if the country grew extraordinarily. What the vultures want, and unusually the judge grants, is that he be paid even if the country has not grown. It’s outrageous. Those who defend this ruling are the same ones who have always argued that the statistics have been changed to show more growth. Now they say it would have been to show a smaller one.
Quoting these tweets from Lopez, Cristina Kirchner posted this: “Accurate and objective description of the facts, which not only disarms another lie of clarionbut it lays bare something more serious: Vulture funds always get judgments from foreign courts that never comply with the law, but yes to give them extraordinary returns. And this, beyond the fact that the aforementioned sentence is not definitive and will be appealed by the country, reflects the real historical tragedy of Argentina: its financial debt and clarion playing, as always, outside”.
López, being false, indicates clarion as if this diary were “defend the sentence”. The vice president adopts the same reasoning.
Neither admits that the manipulation of statistics – a real one systematic plan started during the last year of the former president’s administration Nestor Kirchner AND? continued uninterrupted during the two terms of former president Cristina Kirchner-, it was an incontrovertible fact.
CFK itself said that “if they don’t believe INDEC” -speaking of inflation-, “they can look at private measures”.
This was said when Mauricio Macri’s inflation surpassed what he had left in his second term.
The facts
A London court has upheld a lawsuit brought by Palladian Partners, HBK Master Fund, Hirsh Group and Virtual Emerald International Limited, which owned coupons linked to GDP which Argentina issued in 2005 after the default. These funds sued Argentina in 2019 for up to 643 million euros. The cause: a change in the way GDP was counted had left them without the annual payment Argentina was obligated to make if the country grew beyond a certain level.
In 2014, with Axel Kicillof as Minister of Economy, annual growth of the previous year’s GDP was reported to be just below 3.25%, a level which allowed annual payment to the holders of such bonds. The 2013 Growth Payment was due to be paid by the end of 2014.
A month earlier, in February, the INDEC claimed that the economy had grown by 4.9% in 2013, according to the estimate made based on the calculation in 1993but from 1 January it was decided to apply a new methodology to calculate the GDP, based on 2004.
Economics has changed the way it measured GDP, justifying the previous one it no longer accurately reflected the country’s economy. Among the other reasons that generated the distortions, the main one was the manipulation of the CPI, on behalf and by order of Guillermo Moreno.
By reducing this index, it indirectly inflated GDP, which ended up triggering the annual payment to PBI coupon holders. The Kicillof exchange rate brought down the 2004 GDP below the 3.2% necessary for the payment of the coupon.
Argentine lawyers had said changes in GDP measurement were a necessary part of the process of creating a sustainable debt plan for the nation. Without the changes, bond yields would be driven by an outdated measure of growth through 2035 and decoupled from the country’s real economic performance, they argued.
In July 2020, Judge Sara Cockerill, in a London High Court ruling, rejected Argentina’s request to stay the proceedings, paving the way for a full trial to be held.
In New York there is another similar request, which has as its focus the coupons linked to the GDP and about 415 million dollars at stake. In this case the plaintiff is the Aurelius fund, and the court that has to deal with the case is the Court of the Southern District of New York, against Loretta Preska, the same one that this week ruled against Argentina in the case of the expropriation of the YPF oil company.
Second Alfonso Prat Gay, Between the London and New York trials, the amount that the State could lose would be even greater than the sum of both (1,330 million euros and 415 million dollars respectively).
A reference to the trial for 1,330 million euros that Argentina lost in London, is the cause of the manipulation of INDEC data by the former secretary of Commerce, Guillermo Moreno.
The case has been adjudicated before Federal Oral Court 2 (TOF 2) since late 2018 by prosecutor Carlos Stornelli. The tribunal that will try Moreno and former INDEC directors Beatriz Paglieri and Ana María Edwin, among others, is made up of judges Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, Jorge Gorini and Néstor Costabel and prosecutor Diego Luciani.
The first two and Luciani intervened in the Vice President Cristina Kirchner is sentenced to six years in prison in the Highway case.
INDEC intervened by Néstor Kirchner in 2017, a situation that Cristina maintained during her presidency.
Source: Clarin
