Government awaits Paris Club move to defer payment of US $ 2.4 billion due in 10 days

The government is stepping up talks by the search for an agreement allowing it to avoid a default with the Paris Club. With 10 days left before the $ 2.4 billion payment deadline expires, expectations grow at the Palacio de Hacienda, pending a move that will protect the country.

“We are doing well”, predicted yesterday a very high source of the national government aware of the negotiations carried out by the Minister of the Economy Martin Guzman. At Casa Rosada, they hope that in the coming days, before May 31, there will be news about what it means for Argentina to enter the two-month grace period provided for in the deal.

“We are good, we have time. The important thing is that there is clarity on what is happening that day, ”said an official with daily dialogue with the president. Alberto Fernandez.

After the tour of Europe, which garnered international support, the economic team moved forward this week in conversations with various leaders of the Paris Club, which leads Emmanuel Moulin, with whom the minister spoke a little over a month ago.

In the midst of the economic crisis and while the legislative elections are looming on the horizon, dodging the deadlines of the debts in dollars will give air to the head of state.

While Guzmán takes steps to achieve an extension that allows him “a bridge in time” pending the completion of the debt renegotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the other side, the one in charge to speak in favor of the Argentinian position before the 20 creditors who make up the Club and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. This is the commitment that the French president made during the meeting he held with Alberto Fernández 10 days ago at the Eliseo Palace.

Next Wednesday, the President and Guzmán will organize a videoconference with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in order to close the European chapter. If the support will be important, according to official sources, although they have acknowledged that it will not be “decisive”. But the most complex step remains, obtaining the support of the United States. The truth is that today, beyond the talks, the negotiations with the IMF are still far from being resolved.

The government underlined the presence in Rome of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen, and the former US Secretary of State John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s special climate envoy, who attended the seminar organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAC) at the Vatican a week ago.

While there is still no date for travel or scheduled meetings, one option will be the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

With regard to the renegotiation of the 44 billion dollars that the IMF lent to Argentina, the objective of the manager of the Palacio de Hacienda is to achieve a stand-by plan or payment facilities – these are the lines that the multilateral credit organization has planned today – but with a clause that allows Argentina that if another line of credit appears with better terms, it can change at no cost.

Last week, during a six-day race, the President and his Minister of the Economy maintained a very high-tension international agenda, where they garnered the endorsement of world-class actors, such as the Pope Francis; the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva; the Prime Minister of Italy, Mario draghi, and the President of Spain, Pedro Sanchez. All have publicly expressed their support to resolve the debt problem.

In addition, during the tour which included Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, Fernández and Guzmán explained at each meeting the need for the major powers to transfer Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to the countries of medium size and for the collection of surcharges. , which would represent approximately 950 million dollars per year for Argentina. These two issues will be addressed in the coming months.

All this, even, was part of the debate that the follower of the Nobel Prize in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, organized during a seminar that took place a week ago in the Vatican in which, in addition to the Managing Director of the IMF, Yellen and Kerry, the Managing Director of World Bank Operations, Axel van Trotsenburg, and the Minister of ‘Economy of Germany participated., Wolfgang Schmidt, among others.

The idea of ​​”building new rules” to govern multilateralism was at the center of the conversations during the seminar as well as during the dinner which took place on Friday evening at the Argentinian embassy in Rome. “All the supports are very important. All these trips are part of a construction, ”they explained near Guzmán.

Conocé The Trust Project