BUENOS AIRES, July 31 (RIA Novosti) – Argentina went into default deliberately, turning down a number of proposals made by the court-appointed mediator, Infobae.com local news website reported Thursday, citing a statement by hedge fund NML Capital.
The international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s declared Argentina in “selective default” on its bonds, following the country’s failure to reach a deal with its creditors and make a $539 million interest payment on Wednesday.
After two days of debt negotiations between Argentina and its bondholders held in New York, Argentina’s Economy Minister Axel Kicillof held a press conference, where he said that the situation could not be described as a default.
According to Infobae.com, overnight into Thursday, NML Capital said in a statement that Daniel Pollack, a mediator appointed by Judge Thomas Griesa to settle the negotiations, had offered multiple creative proposals that could have satisfied the hedge fund. Nevertheless, Argentina refused to consider them, choosing to default.
The website also reported that NML Capital abstained from commenting on the information and that the representatives of Argentina’s largest private banks continue negotiations with the bondholders.
The information about those negotiations is rather contradictory. While some media outlets in Argentina report that bank representatives are close to reaching an agreement on debt restructuring, others report that negotiations failed and that the bankers went back to Buenos Aires.
Argentina restructured 93 percent of its debt but creditors holding the other 7 percent of the bonds did not accept Argentina’s proposal and filed a lawsuit, demanding a full payment.
A New York court earlier ruled that Argentina had to pay $1.33 billion to its 2001 bondholders who did not agree with the restructuring deal.
The court had also blocked the transfer of the sum that Buenos Aires forwarded in order to cover its restructured debt, forcing the country to start negotiations with creditors who refused the restructuring deal.
Over the last 40 years Argentina went through three major debt crises, in 1982, 1988 and 2001, with the default declared by the country’s government in 2001 becoming the largest in history.
