Category: Argentina

Spanish-Argentine oil company Repsol YPF pledged to invest at least $6.5 billion in Argentina through 2009. $4.4 billion of that sum will finance petroleum and gas exploration while the rest will go toward refining, marketing and chemical projects. The company also promised to invest $850 million in Bolivia and $650 million in Brazil over the same period.

Argentina’s trade surplus rose in April to $1.2 billion, the highest level in eleven months as exports grew to record high. Exports rose to $3.6 billion from $3.03 billion in March while imports rose to $2.4 billion from $2.2 billion.

Argentine Central Bank President Martin Redrado said the country’s international reserves will climb 9 percent to $24 billion by yearend as an export-led economic expansion boosts the flow of dollars into the country. Reserves this year have climbed to their highest level since the government defaulted on $95 billion in debt in late 2001. Argentina’s central bank, which buys US dollars from exporters and sells pesos, more than tripled daily purchases this month to an average of $76 million a day, from $23 million in April.

Telesur, a new television network spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and created with support from the Venezuelan, Cuban, Argentine and Uruguayan governments, has launched its test signal and will begin programming in late July. The network plans to air 24 hours of continuous Latin American news, documentaries, interviews and movies. Detractors say the network will be an ideological arm of the participating countries – all of which have leftist governments – and will spin anti-American propaganda.

Three leading Argentine economists from the Buenos Aires-based Latin American Economic Foundation (FIEL) will analyze Argentina’s current economic situation and the reasons for its strong recovery. The speakers will look ahead at the prospects for macro-fiscal sustainability after the debt restructuring, and will examine in depth the remaining constraints and challenges for sustaining economic growth in Argentina.
Featured Speakers are: Daniel Artana, Juan Luis Bour and Fernando Navajas
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2005, 4.00-6.00 Location: The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, Florida Program Fee: $30 Registration: RESPOND by email to center@exchange.sba.miami.edu by fax: (305) 284-9871 or by phone: (305) 284-3708

The IMF postponed for one year $2.5 billion worth of debt Argentina was scheduled to pay this year. Argentina currently owes the IMF $13.4 billion and is in discussions to reach a new loan agreement with the Fund. The country has cancelled $5.4 billion of its debt to the IMF since 2002.

Argentine industrial production rose 10.1 percent year-on-year in April, boosted largely by growth in the auto industry and the non-metallic mineral products sector. Capacity utilization in the industrial sector stood at 71 percent, compared to 68 percent a year earlier.

Electricite de France, the world’s largest power company, is in talks with Argentine investment fund Dolphin Group to sell its unprofitable unit Edenor, which provides electricity to Buenos Aires. EDF last month hired JPMorgan Chase to help it initiate preliminary talks to sell Edenor as it divests Latin American units to write off debt in preparation for an initial public offering in France.

Telecom Argentina posted a net profit of $97 million for the first quarter, a sharp increase from the $43 million posted a year earlier. Revenue was up 22 percent to $431 million. The company’s mobile customers rose 40 percent to 4.8 million users, while broadband customers increased by 73 percent to 226,000. Nortel, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia, owns 55 percent of Telecom Argentina.

Venezuela has promised to buy $150 million of Argentine domestic bonds. Argentina said it will assign a new issue of the bonds, known as Bodens, maturing in 2012 to the Venezuelan state development bank at market prices. Argentina will use the proceeds to pay down bonds it gave depositors in 2002 to compensate them for the seizure of their deposits following the country’s $95 billion debt default in late 2001.