In a press conference yesterday, Argentine Finance Minister Martín Guzmán, accompanied by President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, announced that 99% of private bondholders have accepted the government’s plan to restructure $65 million in debt and will swap their current securities for new notes. Guzmán explained that the deal will allow for a savings of $37.7 billion and lower interest rates from 7% to 3.7%, Ambio Financiero reported.
In his remarks, President Fernández emphasized that the country has to take responsibility for what happened with the debt to ensure that “it will never again” fall prey to the “labyrinth of debt.” Argentina, he said, had stuck to its guns in negotiating with the bondholders, knowing that it couldn’t demand more austerity or sacrifice from a population that had already sacrificed enough. Now, he said, “Argentina can think about the future and how to build it.” He pointed out that negotiations occurred in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, in which the government provided financial and other assistance to at least 9 million Argentines, to protect their lives. Now, he added, “we’re on our feet and on the move.”
