Argentina will sign a $5 billion loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank within two months, a spokesman for the Argentine Economy Ministry said on Saturday.
"We have made progress on the final technical details of a 5-year IADB loan program for $5 billion. The final agreement will be ready in two months," spokesman Armando Torres told Reuters after Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna met IADB President Enrique Iglesias on the sidelines of the IADB's annual meeting in Lima.
"The first tranche of the loan will be worth $1 billion for the social area, of which a payment of $500 million will be made this year," Torres added.
Argentina has bounced back from a record $88 billion debt default in 2002, but has yet to convince bondholders to accept its plan to repay only 25 percent of what they are owed.
Torres said Lavagna would meet the World Bank's Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, David de Ferranti, on Sunday to discuss a separate $5 billion country assistance loan over 4-1/2 years.
The World Bank board in February postponed a meeting on a new lending program for Argentina amid "discomfort" among some shareholders over the lack of progress in debt restructuring talks. That delay set back the proposed $5 billion loan deal.
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