BUENOS AIRES: Argentina has announced to repay $5.9 billion of its debt on the first trading day on Monday as per its repayment schedule.
Country’s Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said, “We will follow this deadline as we have done for years. It is the largest payment in one instalment in a decade.” The payment will be made by drawing on the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which showed a balance of $32.5 billion. “We will pay, all in good time, and Argentina will continue on the path of debt reduction.” A longstanding dispute over the debt with US hedge funds remains, however. Since its economic collapse in 2001, Argentina has renegotiated its debt with 93 percent of its creditors, but a handful of US-based hedge funds have held out for full repayment and refused debt restructuring.
A US court decision requires Argentina to repay those creditors in full, which Buenos Aires has called extortion by a group of “vulture funds.”
