Sergio Massa announces peso debt swap: ‘We seek to give peace of mind to savers’

The Minister of Economy Sergio Massa reassured that the swap of debt in pesos which was agreed on Monday with the banks will be used to “giving peace of mind to savers” and said that “it shatters the idea that we have the wears a reprofiling”.

The person in charge had a meeting with bankers this afternoon to define how the operation of conversion of the title will be carried out in the next days.

“Being able to look at a two-basket offer, the possibility of having a debt program that disables even that idea of ​​a bomb, that every two or three months something is about to explode and that gives him a curve of maturity 2024″, 2025, much more orderly, also associated with the tax order program,” Massa said.

The Minister began with praise. “The first thing I want to do is to thank you very much for the seriousness and professional work with which throughout these weeks of combat or discussion with the financial system and the State and the national public sector, which for many many months have been considered the biggest problem and greatest uncertainty in the Argentine economy, which were debt maturities in pesos, can have a program and programming that gives peace of mind to the saver, to the depositor in the first place”, he expressed in front of his guests.

“It is that every citizen knows that when he deposits a fixed term, or in a savings account, he does not have to know if the auctions of one week or another of the public sector with the banks went well or badly. Because giving predictability to the link and financing between the public sector and the financial system, and the system of insurance companies and the system of the internal savings market has as its final beneficiary our savers, our depositors, the citizen that operates in the financial system every day,” he said.

“Without a stabilized financial system with the ability to provide credit, an economy does not work, so for us to have a financial system, a system of local, public, private and international banks that is strong, vigorous, and that also has An ally in the state to work together to improve credit capacity and improve the depth of access to the idea of ​​savings in the Argentine economy is fundamental,” he affirmed.

“Working together seriously and giving certainty and stability to the Argentine economy is a challenge that the Ministry of Economy obviously has, we have as a team, we have as a government, but it’s above all a challenge that we can overcome if we work together, even in the difference as throughout this last month we have seen that we can work”, he specified.

“The most relevant data of this call for tenders which is launched, of this so-called voluntary exchange, is that it breaks with the idea that Argentina has a debt reprofiling every week at the door. We have already had a debt reprofiling in pesos at one point, we have seen the frustration, the pain and the failure that this meant for Argentina and we understand that having an orderly and predictable debt profile is fundamental for the financial system, fundamental for the State and for the saver and the citizen an enormous peace of mind”, he said, after the criticisms of the economists of JxC.

“Being able to look at a two-basket offer, the possibility of having a debt program that disables even that idea of ​​a bomb, that every two or three months something is about to explode and that gives him a curve of maturity 2024″, 2025, much more orderly, also associated with the tax order program”. “The challenge of lower public spending on our part decompresses the idea of ​​having to constantly seek financing or seek transitional advances from the Central Bank to put the economy in the idea that budgetary order is the point the most important anchor we have to When it comes to managing the national public sector, it is a task that we must do together, ”said the Minister.

“Argentina has gone through 2020, 2021 and part of 2022 without external credit, with a huge level and volume of issuance as public sector financing, this creates a difficulty for us that we also have to face because this must be part of our program to fight inflation,” he said.

“Inflation is fought with a fiscal order, with the accumulation of reserves, but also with the control of the currency in circulation, as well as with an increase in the improvement of the supply of goods by the private sector which gives a dynamic to our economy and which is a job that in these second six months of management of this team we are going to face to try that this challenge of lowering inflation is also an achievement of this economic team, for this, this work that we face together is fundamental”, he underlined.

“Breaking the uncertainty about the state’s ability to finance itself in the domestic savings market for local debt was essential, and this jump from the mountain as many called it, I read in some media ‘there’s a whiff of reprofiling’, all these ghosts they end, so let’s work together not only because it allows us to remove the uncertainty for 2023, which is enormous peace of mind for you and for savers, but also because it must allow us to be the basis or to conceive of it as the basis of other agreements to improve the level of access to credit for citizens, which is ultimately the best way to give our economy a chance”, he explained.

“For this, we need a solid financial system, and we, the economic team, creativity and tools at the service of the economy so that the citizen is encouraged to deposit much more, but above all to take a lot more credit to regain confidence in our currency,” he said.

“I only have to thank you, to tell you that we want to continue working together, that we are also going to order the intra-State debt, we have the deadlines for the third and fourth quarters which have a lot of weight in the national public sector balance sheet, which sometimes also upsets and generates uncertainty,” Massa said.

“We’re going to do that by using the tools that give us the power to conduct economic policy within the state, working with each of the jurisdictions with a standard that allows us to work with each of the public sector organizations, to that in addition to this deep spirit of collaboration that the system of banks and insurance companies shows to give predictability to Argentina, also have the accompaniment of the State, that this orderly curve is not only the product of the effort, the work of the banks, the insurance companies and the Ministry of Economy, but also have as a correlate the responsibility of the State to straighten this curve and make it predictable and give tranquility of mind to the Argentines”, he underlined.

“Now we have to proceed with the exchange, the auction and Monday of next week to show Argentine society that we have the financial system absolutely strengthened and also the national public sector with its accounts in order,” the official concluded.

In addition to Sergio Massa, present at the meeting, which ended around 1:30 p.m., Deputy Economy Minister Gabriel Rubinstein, Finance Secretary Eduardo Setti and Chief Advisor Leonardo Madcur. On behalf of the Central Bank, the president of the Central Bank Miguel Pesce, the vice of this institution Lisandro Cleri and the general director Agustín Torcassi.

As part of the participating banks Claudio Cesario, president of the Asociación de Bancos de la Argentina (ABA), Javier Bolzico, of the Asociación de Bancos Argentinos (Adeba), Gustavo Manríquez (Banco Macro), Leticia Canclini (Banco Santa Fe), Fabián Kon (Galicia), Alejandro Butti (Santander), Martín Zarich (BBVA), Oswaldo Parré dos Santos (Patagonia), Alejandro Ledesma (ICBC), Federico Alcalde Bessia (HSBC), Carlos Heller (Credicoop), and Claudio Canepa (Banco Saint Jean).

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