© Archyde.com/AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
Silhouette of the dome of the Argentine National Congress, in Buenos Aires
By Jorge Otaola
BUENOS AIRES, March 11 (Archyde.com) – Argentina’s bonds strengthened their prices on Friday as they took advantage of a greater appetite for risk hours after the lower house of Congress approved the country’s agreement with the IMF to restructure some 45,000 million dollars, a measure which must now be dealt with by the Senate.
President Alberto Fernández sent the project last week to Congress to reach a consensus with the opposition to avoid default, prior to March 22, when the Government would have to face a capital payment of some 2,800 million dollars.
“Political support for the agreement is a sign, perhaps not to solve fundamental issues, but at least to show that the internal dialogue to avoid greater evils. In the Senate, the vote should be less traumatic, so that later the ‘board’ of the Fund also gives the go-ahead”, synthesized a financial analyst.
In the external context, the markets showed selective improvements after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, pointed out that there were “certain positive turns” in the talks with Ukraine amid growing geopolitical tensions.
* Over-the-counter sovereign bonds improved 0.8% on average, led by dollarized issues, against a rise of 1.1% the day before when the legislative guarantee for the IMF issue was discounted.
* For its part, the Argentine country risk prepared by the JP. Morgan bank lost 30 basis points, to 1,796 units at 2000 GMT, compared to a minimum of 1,083 points recorded in 2020 after the closing of the private debt swap and a maximum of 1,991 points reached at the beginning of the week.
* The new agreement with the IMF establishes a grace period of four and a half years and extends disbursement payments to 10 years, so the country will begin to pay off the debt in 2026 and end in 2034.
* The implementation of the understanding will require meeting growth targets, lowering inflation and adding reserves to the central bank, among other general guidelines.
* In the stock market round, the leading stock index S&P Merval fell 1.42% to 88,999.06 points as a provisional closing due to profit taking, against a bullish start and a gain of 3.5% in the previous session.
* The interbank peso depreciated 0.1%, to 108.88/108.89 per dollar, in a circuit controlled by the central bank (BCRA) since the opening of business.
* The monetary authority ended the day with purchases of just over 5 million dollars, to close the week with purchases of some 375 million and accumulate around 465 million dollars in March, traders said.
* Foreign exchange sources agreed that the increased liquidation of foreign exchange by the agro-export sector allows the BCRA to accumulate dollars.
* The peso in the informal or ‘blue’ band recovered slightly to 202 per dollar, after marking a historic low of 223.5 units at the end of January.
* On the other hand, in the alternative segments, the currency of the “cash with liquidation” (CCL) stock market was traded firmly at 191 per dollar and the demanded “MEP dollar” did so at levels of 187.2 per unit.
(Reporting by Jorge Otaola; With the collaboration of Hernán Nessi; Editing by Walter Bianchi)