This week’s US financial lifeline for Argentina increases the likelihood that the South American country requests even more help from the IMF at a time when the fund has already lent huge sums to Buenos Aires, experts say.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday offered a $20bn swap line to Javier Milei’s government and pledged to buy its bonds, as the Trump administration moved to shore up its ideological ally. The measures halted a rout in Argentine markets triggered by Milei’s rapid depletion of the country’s foreign reserves as he sought to defend an overvalued currency.
But they also threaten to load even more debt on to Argentina, just four months after its latest IMF bailout, adding to the problem of how it will repay creditors. Investors and analysts say that US hopes of getting its money back will depend on even greater largesse from the fund, which already has $57bn of credit outstanding to Argentina, 46 per cent of the total outstanding via its main bailout vehicle.