The Government renewed for another 10 years – for 2034 –
a debt it has with the Central Bank for US$ 7,941 million.
This is stated in Joint Resolution No. 7/2024, of the Secretariats of Finance and Treasury, - published today in the Official Gazette, that "the expansion of the issuance of the Non-transferable National Treasury Bill in US dollars expires January 7, 2034 ” for US$ 7,941,035,741.11.
Originally, this Letter was issued in 2014
– to pay external public debt, using the Central Bank's reserves – for 10 years, that is, with maturity in January 2024.
Now, plus interest, it is renewed for another 10 years.
The Resolution clarifies that this procedure will be applied during 2024
.
"Through article 4 of decree 23/2024, it is established that payments of interest services and capital amortizations of non-transferable bills in the portfolio of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), as well as those issued in favor of said Bank during the year 2024, will be replaced, at their expiration date, by new public securities whose conditions will be defined, jointly, by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance, both of the Ministry of Economy," he details.
.
As Clarín explained,
the Central Bank had Non-transferable National Treasury Bills in its assets at the end of 2023
for a total of US$67.3 billion.
Then, through DNU No. 23/2024, the current Government ordered the Central Bank to lend the National Treasury US$3.2 billion over 10 years to pay debts in foreign currency.
In exchange for obtaining these currencies, the National Treasury will give the BCRA Non-Transferable Letters with maturity until 2034.
In this way,
the public debt does not decrease but there is a change of creditor,
since the indebtedness with private creditors is replaced by the Central Bank.
The BCRA goes from having liquid assets (reserves) to having illiquid assets
(Nontransferable Bills, which it has to keep until maturity (up to 10 years) and which are then renewed again.
The Nontransferable Letters were born in January 2006 when Néstor Kirchner paid the entire debt with the IMF (US$ 9,530 million) using reserves from the Central Bank.
In 2010, Cristina Kirchner's government extended the use of reserves to pay public debt with private holders.
S.N.