Argentina, International Debt: US Takes Blame for Default
After the country defaulted in debt this week, Argentina blamed the U.S. and said the financial mediator was incompetent, according to BBC.
Argentina's Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said Wednesday they were considering opening proceedings at international tribunals in The Hague when the last-minute talks in New York with bond-holders failed, BBC reported. The country defaulted on debt owed to hedge funds in the U.S., who had held out on any restructuring deals after having bought the bonds cheaply.
This is the second time in 13 years that Argentina has defaulted on international debts, according to the Los Angeles Times. And the first time may have created the current problem.
The investors, hedge funds NML and Aurelius Capital Management, bought up a large chunk of distressed debt after Argentina's economic crisis in 2001. When other bond-holders agreed to restructuring in 2005 and 2010, they settled for about one-third what they were owed, but the U.S. hedge funds held out and are demanding the full value.
Economists say the current crisis could hamper the country with inflation, which has already grown by double-digits.
"If the default is prolonged, the negative consequences internally and externally will accelerate," said Daniel Artana, an economist with a Buenos Aires think tank FIEL.
NML said in a statement mediator Daniel Pollack had proposed "numerous creative solutions many of which were acceptable to us [at the last-minute talks in New York]. Argentina refused to consider any of them and chose to default."
Argentina was blocked from making a restructuring payment and told it needed to pay the hedge funds in full by a U.S. judge in June, but because it was unable to do both, the country defaulted.
"We're not going to sign an agreement that jeopardises the future of all Argentinians," Economy minister Axel Kicillof said at a press conference in New York, according to the Guardian. "Argentinians can remain calm because tomorrow will just be another day, and the world will keep on spinning."
Capitanich said the move was a conspiracy by the U.S. to trick Argentina.
"To say we are in default is absurd trickery," he said. "If the judge is clearly an agent of the vulture funds, if the mediator is an agent of the vulture funds, if the judicial system is infiltrated by the vulture funds, then what kind of justice are you talking to me about?"
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