Economy Minister Sergio Massa announced this Friday that the national government “successfully” closed an agreement with the Paris Club.
“Today we have successfully concluded the agreement with the Paris Club for Argentina,” Massa said when launching a credit program for SMEs in Escobar, while pointing out the importance of “consolidating the credibility” of the country.
“Many of the companies that are here were denied access to credit in Europe and to trade with companies from the European bloc because we had been locked in negotiations with the Paris Club,” said the minister, at a ceremony in which he was also present the Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, José Ignacio De Mendiguren.
Massa participated by telephone from Argentina in the meetings with the Paris Club that carried out the technical team, headed by the person in charge of relations with multilateral organizations and head of INDEC, Marco Lavagnaand the head of advisers to the Palacio de Hacienda, Leonardo Madcur, told Télam official sources.
Argentine officials began formal talks with the counterpart in the French capital to close the technical agreement.
Background of the negotiations with the Paris Club
In October, Massa made great strides in Washington in negotiations with the Paris Club, during a meeting he held with its secretary general, Emmanuel Moulin.
Y I planned to schedule a trip to France for this week, although later for agenda reasons the minister remained in Argentina.
This change of plans did not prevent talks from starting between the parties, and Massa deciding to participate by telephone, in view of the fact that there was already a rapprochement at the beginning of October.
“The agreement is almost closed. There are very good prospects,” Massa told Télam and a group of journalists at the end of one of the meetings of the economic team in the United States, within the framework of the annual meeting of the Monetary Fund. International (IMF) and the World Bank.
The objective achieved by Argentina is the refinancing of the debt of approximately US$ 2,400 million based on an extension of the repayment terms, a reduction in the interest rate, which is currently 9% per year, and the incorporation into said agreement of the US$ 430 million already paid in two installments in February 2022 and July 2021.
Key to advancing the negotiations was the approval of the second review of the current program with the IMFwhich formally materialized last October 7, since for the Paris Club it is a base condition (unwritten), to evaluate the performance and policies for the refinancing of Argentina’s debt with said multilateral organization.
