Weekend Economists Mark D Day, 2014 June 6-8, 2014

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20. Argentina Returning to Local Bond Market After Five Years

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-06/argentina-returning-to-local-bond-market-after-five-year-absence.html

Argentina is completing its first local bond sale in five years as part of its efforts to return to global credit markets.

The government is offering 4.4 billion pesos ($542 million) of three-year bonds today with yields tied to the benchmark Badlar rate plus 2 percentage points, or a total of about 26 percent. The Treasury issued 5.5 billion pesos of the 2017 notes in March, its first sale in local markets since 2009.

By tapping the local market, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government is reducing its dependence on state agencies and the central bank to finance its deficit, while helping the monetary authority drain liquidity from the economy. Argentina is mending relations with international creditors, compensating Repsol SA for the takeover of YPF SA and paying the Paris Club, as it seeks to regain access to international financing.

“Since the default, investors were always more willing to lend to the central bank, but now the market is assigning the Treasury a similar risk,” said Aldo Pignanelli, a former central bank president who now runs research firm Saver in Buenos Aires. “It’s another step toward normalization.”