Kirchner's gov't explains debt swap to investors in New York today

After speaking with newly arrived Carlos Fernández, Cristina de Kirchner met Morocco's Prime Minister in New York

Yesterday, Argentine Economy Minister Carlos Fernández and Secretary of Finance Hernán Lorenzino arrived in the United States. They were the last to join Cristina de Kirchner's delegation, after staying in Buenos Aires to negotiate the offer made by three banks to reprogram 2009 and 2010 debt due dates, and proceed to swap the bonds of "holdouts", bondholders who refused to participate in the 2005 debt restructuring.

Hours after having landed in New York, Minister Fernández met President Kirchner at the Four Seasons' lobby. The Argentine Head of State listened to the explanation of the latest news about the transaction situation in Buenos Aires, and then she left to meet Morocco's Prime Minister. This was the previous step to an explanation, not only expected by the press but also by the financial sector, that the Economy Minister Carlos Fernández will give today about the debt reprogramming. In spite of their efforts, no member of the US delegation was able to provide a thorough description of the result and final cost of this transaction.

Carlos Fernández and Lorenzino have worked together with Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa during the last few days, not only on the proposal presented by Barclays, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank, but also on the technical draft of the bill the government will send to Congress to ratify the transaction.

Not all measures to be taken by Cristina de Kirchner need parliamentary agreement. It is clear that changing the "holdout" status requires legislators to approve a new bill. But strategic liability reprogramming, as former president Néstor Kirchner calls it, does not need to be voted by Congress and thus will stay out of the negotiations with legislators, even though everything depends on the same agreement with the foreign banks. This issue was also discussed yesterday by Cristina and her minister, who were besides trying to sort out an import tariff difference that could affect a company planning to invest in Argentina, but which the government keeps in total secret.