Argentina is "very close" to reaching an agreement to restructure its $6.3 billion debt with the Paris Club, Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez said on Tuesday. Argentina wants to renegotiate the Paris Club debt, which is a remnant from the country's 2001-02 financial meltdown, and has been holding discussions in recent months with individual members of the 19-member group.
Asked by reporters about the status of the talks, Fernandez said: "The economy minister is working (on this), we're very close and we have to keep on working." Paris Club officials have not publicly commented on the negotiations.
Analysts say the talks have been protracted largely because of President Nestor Kirchner's attempts to persuade Paris Club members that Argentina does not need oversight from the International Monetary Fund, a condition for restructuring Club debt.
Kirchner, a fierce IMF critic, blames the fund's policies in part for Argentina's economic crisis five years ago, when the country defaulted on its debt and devalued its peso currency.
The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors that includes the United States and other members of the Group of Seven rich nations. Nearly 70 percent of Argentina's Paris Club debt is with Germany, Japan and Spain.
Argentina's economy has been growing at an average rate of about 9 percent for four years, and some Paris Club members are pressing for an IMF program that demonstrates Argentina's need for debt relief and gives them information about its finances.
Responding to Argentine media reports, Fernandez also said the government had no plans to swap its inflation-indexed bonds, which have become expensive to service due to near double-digit inflation in the last two years. "No, no, no. Argentina ... honours what it says and we are going to honour our obligations," he said.
Argentina restructured some $100 billion in defaulted sovereign debt with private creditors in early 2005 and cancelled its entire debt with the IMF last year.