Latest news with #WalterBianchi
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Argentina takes baby step toward financial order with pricey $1 billion debt auction
By Rodrigo Campos, Walter Bianchi and Jorge Otaola NEW YORK/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's first major bond sale in seven years, a $1 billion offering with payments in pesos, is a clear sign that global investors are regaining their faith in a country recently mired in triple-digit inflation. But the nearly 30% yield, higher than many expected, showed a high level of apprehension remains. President Javier Milei needs to prove to Argentines voting in October, the International Monetary Fund and foreign investors that the economic recovery will continue. Annual inflation has fallen to near 50% from over 270% a year ago. He has convinced the IMF to lend Argentina $20 billion and slashed government spending without losing much popularity, even though nearly 40% of Argentines live below the poverty line. Argentina owes around $300 billion, about $60 billion of which is in dollar-denominated international bonds. A return to dollar-denominated financing in global capital markets is embedded in the IMF program and is sorely needed to cement the recent recovery. This week's offering is "an important milestone on the path to refinancing future dollar commitments," said economist Gustavo Ber, head of Buenos Aires-based Estudio Ber. BTG Pactual called it a "savvy move" with the same outcome as the central bank buying dollars with pesos, without distorting the foreign currency market. The government said late on Wednesday that demand for the 5-year notes was about 1.7 times the $1 billion cap. The 29.5% yield exceeded initial expectations for about 25% and investors have the option to sell back the bonds after two years. Markets on Thursday signaled partial support, when prices for Argentina's dollar bonds issued under foreign or local laws rose marginally. Auctions like this could be replicated but other steps are crucial, said Armando Armenta, senior economist at AllianceBernstein. "It would be better to see more foreign direct inflows and, more importantly, the central bank purchasing reserves to meet the net international reserve accumulation targets," Armenta said. "This would open the door for Argentina to access the dollar sovereign debt market early next year." PESO DEBT On Thursday, peso-denominated debt prices fell and the 10-year local note yield rose, roughly to 27% from 26%. "These rates in pesos are very high, considering their expectations of inflation falling towards 10% in the next two years," said Clyde Wardle, senior emerging markets FX strategist at HSBC, of the yield paid this week. If the current 47% inflation keeps falling sharply, those rates will turn out to be very high and raise the risk of pushing the government to print pesos to pay bondholders, he said. The new offering's yield was well above the expectations of local brokerage Puente, which noted that it "does not indicate strong conviction regarding the future evolution and sustainability of the (currency exchange)." The peso has fallen about 9% to the dollar since capital controls were loosened in mid-April. Argentina has promised the IMF to add $4.4 billion to its net reserves by mid-June. Those reserves were in the red in December and analysts doubt the June objective will be met. The new bond shows investor limits for now, HSBC's Wardle said. "It is unlikely Argentina could find an affordable dollar-denominated issuance rate that attracts foreign investor interest. There is still too much uncertainty about growth." Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Argentina markets bask in Milei's local election win glow
By Walter Bianchi and Juan Carlos Bustamante BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's markets enjoyed the glow on Monday of a mood-boosting local election win by the party of investor-friendly libertarian President Javier Milei, which analysts said put him in good stead ahead of more important ballots later this year. Milei's party won the most votes in legislative elections in wealthy capital Buenos Aires, beating pollsters' forecasts. The win gives Milei just a few more seats in the city's legislature, but is symbolic of his rising fortunes. "The bulk of the support was all to do with Milei," said Buenos Aires-based political consultant Shila Vilker with Trespuntozero, adding it was a "resounding win" for Milei's brash brand of austerity and deregulation. "It's a confirmation of the course they're on." While Milei is divisive, he has kept voters on his side by bringing down what was triple-digit inflation via tough spending cuts and reducing monetary emissions, moves that have won him plaudits from investors and the International Monetary Fund. The latest vote suggests his political footing remains firm, which markets have cheered - even if the real-life impact of the vote is limited, with his party still holding a minority in the city's legislature after the victory. On Monday, bonds edged up around half a percent, while the S&P Merval stock index was up nearly 2%. "Milei's list wasn't expected to come first, and that has two implications," said Graham Stock, emerging markets strategist at RBC Global Asset Management, adding it gave Milei leverage with his more moderate conservative allies. "It suggests that they're going to do better than expected in the midterms in October, but even before that, it creates more momentum behind a deal (with center-right party PRO)." Argentina will renew half of the seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies and a third of those in the Senate in the midterm vote. Milei, an economist and acid-tongued former pundit, came to office in December 2023 after a shock election win. The country still faces a major challenge to build up depleted foreign currency reserves, which it needs to hit targets under a new $20 billion IMF deal, while the recent lifting of capital controls has made the peso more volatile. And not everyone was convinced that it was a win for Milei, with voters split - and many not turning up at all. "My interpretation is that no political party won," said Buenos Aires lawyer Juan Pablo Mares, citing one of the lowest-ever voter turnouts with many people apathetic and struggling under still-high inflation and cuts to public services. "If the political leaders don't look at that, read it, and learn from it, they will continue to be divorced from the reality we all face."
The Star
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Argentina's top court finds 80 boxes of Nazi materials in its basement
A person holds Nazi-related material that was originally confiscated by local authorities when it was shipped to Argentina in 1941, after several boxes containing the material were recently discovered by chance in the archives of the Supreme Court of Argentina, in Buenos Aires, Argentina in this handout picture released on May 11, 2025. Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Republica Argentina/Handout via REUTERS BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Dozens of boxes of Nazi material confiscated by Argentinean authorities during World War II were recently rediscovered in the Supreme Court's basement, the court said on Sunday. The 83 boxes were sent by the Germany embassy in Tokyo to Argentina in June 1941 aboard the Japanese steamship "Nan-a-Maru," according to the history that the court was able to piece together, it said in a statement. At the time, the large shipment drew the attention of authorities, who feared its contents could affect Argentina's neutrality in the war. Despite claims at the time from German diplomatic representatives that the boxes held personal items, Argentine customs authorities searched five boxes at random. They found postcards, photographs and propaganda material from the Nazi regime, as well as thousands of notebooks belonging to the Nazi party.A federal judge confiscated the materials, and referred the matter to the Supreme Court. It was not immediately clear why the items were sent to Argentina or what, if any, action the Supreme Court took at the time. Eighty-four years later, court staffers came across the boxes as they prepared for a Supreme Court museum. "Upon opening one of the boxes, we identified material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina during the Second World War," the court said. The court has now transferred the boxes to a room equipped with extra security measures, and invited the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires to participate in their preservation and inventory. Experts will also examine them for any clues about still-unknown aspects of the Holocaust, such as international financing networks used by the Nazis. Argentina remained neutral in World War II until 1944, when it broke relations with Axis powers. The South American country declared war on Germany and Japan the following year. From 1933 to 1954, according to the Holocaust Museum, 40,000 Jews entered Argentina as they fled Nazi persecution in Europe. Argentina is home to the largest population of Jews in Latin America. (Reporting by Walter Bianchi and Miguel Lo Bianco; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
