Prat Gay spars with Victory Front
For over four hours and after a bitter argument with his predecessor, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat Gay defended the government’s deal with holdout creditors before the Finance and Budget committees of the Lower House and urged lawmakers to pass the bill to repeal the two laws that prevent the enactment of the agreement.
The hearing came on the same day the government closed deals worth US$6.7 million with a group of small and medium-sized holdout funds and individual bondholders in New York.
Argentina has to end its 14-year litigation with the “vulture” funds as soon as possible in order for the economy to start growing again, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat Gay said, criticizing the former administration for having raised the defaulted debt from US$6.1 billion in 2002 to the current US$18.8 billion.
Alongside Finance Secretary Luis Caputo, the Finance Minister confirmed the government will issue US$15 billion in debt, US$11.68 of which will allocated to pay the debt with the so-called “vulture” funds. The rest will be used for other debt payments and to finance the fiscal deficit. Three bonds with maturities of 5,10 and 30 years will be issued in mid-April with a 7.5 percent interest rate.
“This is a state affair. If we don’t solve this, we can’t grow again. The default has terrible consequences on the functioning of the economy. We have to end it soon and on the best way possible,” Prat Gay said. “We understand it’s not a pleasant move but we have to do it for the economy to improve.”