Government seeks to reduce debt maturities by US $ 28,404 million in 2021

This is just over half of the US $ 53,086 million expiring this year, of which 46.5%, or US $ 24,682 million, is the public debt in the public sector that the government has contracted with. organizations, companies, national and provincial governments, and that it is entirely in national currency.

This amount of obligations was estimated by the Congress Budget Office (OPC), in an analysis that the maturities with the International Monetary Fund for US $ 5.193 million, the highest payments being concentrated in September and December.

The governments that make up the Paris Club, meanwhile, are due to receive around $ 2.46 billion in May., if an agreement is not reached beforehand to postpone this commitment.

The OPC is a “technical office for fiscal analysis” of the national parliament, which provides support to the legislature “to deepen understanding of issues that involve public resources, democratize knowledge and decision-making”.

In his latest report on “public debt operations”, The Bureau clarified that year-end maturities for US $ 53,086 million are reduced by 46% (to US $ 28,404 million) if intra-public sector maturities are excluded.

More than half of the total maturities, meanwhile, correspond to government bonds in national currency, for the equivalent of US $ 26,899 million.

In the short term, the budget office said, debt maturities in February amount to US $ 4,011 million, due to amortization of US $ 3,555 million and interest of US $ 455 million. EU.

“By excluding intra-public assets, maturities are reduced to US $ 2,055 million, of which 77% is paid in local currency,” the OPC said.

So far, in the first week of February, interest has been paid on the standby arrangement with the IMF, equivalent to US $ 313 million.

For the month of March, according to the analysis, maturities are expected to total US $ 6,204 million; and in April, they reached US $ 7,044 million.

Regarding local operations, the Ministry of the Economy has anticipated a call for tenders schedule for the first quarter of 2021 and for the current period two offers have been defined: the one already held on the 3rd and the one scheduled for next Wednesday 24.

In the first, Ledes and Lepase bonds maturing next June and Badlar bonds maturing in February 2023 were placed for a total amount of $ 83,923 million.

In January, two offers were also held, which resulted in the placement of instruments denominated in local currency for a total amount of $ 250,188 million in original face value (NOV).

Thus, public market securities were canceled for the equivalent of $ 2,182 million: payments in cash and pesos totaled $ 189,563 million, the remainder corresponding to cancellations due to currency exchange transactions. denominated in dollars.

Over the past month, the OPC report added, external loan disbursements amounting to US $ 35 million were received and amortizations of US $ 291 million were paid, mainly corresponding to bilateral loans.

These expenses are mainly reflected in the depreciation of USD 95 million and USD 68 million corresponding to loans from the China Development Bank Corporation (CDBC) for the railway works of Belgrano Cargas and for the hydropower works of the Santa Cruz River, respectively. .

In January, US $ 55.1 million was also paid to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and US $ 30.6 million to the World Bank.

Regarding intra-public funding, Treasury bills for that month were paid directly by different organizations, for $ 9,180 million, while there were new subscriptions of bills for a total of 20. $ 834 million, maturing in July and September 2021.

In the first month of the year, furthermore, interest was paid equivalent to US $ 434 million, 85% of which was in national currency.

In this context, the payment of the interest of Cuasipar and Discount in adjustable pesos by CER, for a total of 16,026 million dollars (approximately 189 million dollars) stood out.