While addressing the nation from the Buenos Aires stock exchange floor, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner assured that as the country readies to pay the nearly $2.2 billion Boden 2012 debt, “we reach the end of a historic cycle” as it puts an end to the infamous corralito. She insisted, however, that “this isn’t a reason to celebrate, but to reflect,” and defended her administration’s restrictions on currency exchange.
She also blasted the private banking sector and investment funds.
“Today we reach the end of a historic cycle. I read on some newspapers that we were allegedly coming to celebrate. So I though to myself: ‘should I wear a party hat and a rattle?’ I don’t think this is a reason to celebrate, but to reflect,” she stated.
The President assured that the Government would pay the final installment of the money that “should have been returned by the banks to the Argentine citizens” who were caught in the financial “corralito,” which froze all bank accounts and forbade any withdrawals during the 2001 and 2002 crisis.
“What a fantastic deal. Not once but twice they ended up keeping the population’s money,” she said as she targeted the private banking sector and investment funds.
“Please, let’s not be stupid anymore. Let’s not be dumb,” she urged to population.
She said that after the Boden 2012 payment, worth $2.1 billion dollars and scheduled to take place on Friday, it will represent an 8.4 percent decrease of the foreign debt.
A 22 percent of the Boden 2012 bondholders are local, while a 78 percent of them are abroad, the Head of State indicated.
She later justified the official restrictions imposed by the Government on foreign currency exchange and foreign trade.
“Argentina doesn’t print dollars. The US does, and it passes on its problems to the rest of the world,” she accused, and said that Argentina obtains dollars through the international tourism, foreign investments and the foreign trade balance.
In that context, she justified her administration’s measures to “control” the foreign currency exchange market and foreign trade.
“We need dollars so our businesses can buy basic supplies in order to maintain production,” she emphasized before the Stock Echange authorities, her cabinet and even City Mayor Mauricio Macri, who was also present.
BODEN 2012 is the title of the bonds offered to investors when care-take President Eduardo Duhalde’s government froze access to their dollar accounts during the financial crisis in 2002, and the group of withdrawal restrictions on foreign currency deposits became known as «Corralito» (playpen).
Those bonds were later transferred to institutional holders including banks and insurance firms. Paying the final installment of the debt represents an outlay of US$2.3 billion, which the administration will cover using international Central Bank reserves.
Since BODEN 2012 was initiated in 2002, the state has spent US$19.6 billion cancelling the debt.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald