Unfortunately for the finance secretary, it looks unlikely that he will have an easy time during his trip, which will take him to Japan, Germany, Italy, and the US.
Argentina's creditors, it seems, are hardening their resolve, and they are unlikely to accept finance minister Roberto Lavagna's line last week that 'bondholders must be prepared for the fact that, as happened with those who had money saved in Argentina's banks, they have to take some kind of loss.'
At best, it would appear that the creditors will tolerate lower interest repayments, but at this stage there is no talk of them relenting on their demands that Argentina repay in its entirety the US$50bn principal owed to bondholders.
The interest on that defaulted debt is currently estimated at about US$26bn.
This was the opinion of Italian and German holders of Argentine bonds interviewed by the newspaper Clarín over the weekend.
The Italian group said that they would consider accepting smaller interest repayments if private creditors received the same terms as institutional investors and multilateral organisations.
The group also said that it would consider accepting bonds linked to economic performance.
Both the Italian and the German bondholders, who together are owed some US$22.4bn, welcomed the IMF's involvement in the issue but said that they would be very surprised if Argentina, even with the lender's assistance, would be able to come up with some kind of proposal by September.
These signs of bondholder resistance have emerged just as official data is indicating a slowdown in the country's economic recovery. Though official forecasts take this into consideration, the impact on the public mood is expected to be negative.
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