Buenos Aires, January 8 (NA) - The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, strongly criticized the political opposition that questioned the $3 billion loan taken to pay for tomorrow's maturity. However, professional economists state that the operation increases the country's liabilities. 'We took $3 billion plus $910 million last month (with BONAR2029). That is, if part is paid with REPO, the total debt would increase due to the difference between the interest and the genuine contribution from the Treasury (about $1.3 billion)'. 'Amortization paid with another debt does not change the total debt. The 'genuine' part is just talk... I don't know where the Treasury got its $1.3 billion (surplus or debt)', the economist concluded. Meanwhile, Nicolas Capella, from IDB, marked that 'the term, although short (372 days), should not be more than a bridge until Argentina can return to international markets'. 'The doubt now is how the Treasury will get those dollars, since the REPO was done by the BCRA. We estimate that the Treasury will buy them with the pesos it has in the BCRA accounts, which are a little over 4.1 trillion pesos', added Capella in a report on social networks processed by the Argentine News Agency. Consequently, he concluded that 'in this way, those pesos would be exhausted and there could be no more 'Anchor Point' in future tenders using that liquidity cushion'. 'In any case, we estimate that at some point, said cushion will be refilled when the BCRA transfers profits for the 2025 exercise to the Treasury (that's how the cushion originated last year) but for now they are mere speculations', the economist pointed out. For the economy, Marina Dal Poggetto the problem is that Argentina could not return to the capital markets. 'Argentina still has not managed to access credit to refinance the dollar and peso debt maturities on sustainable terms', declared the director of ECoGo. $4.200 million mature, but of capital are $2.700 million. Therefore, there will be net debt growth. We have to end with the epic of the narrative', launched Christian Buteler. In a similar sense, Carlos Rodríguez, former advisor to President Javier Milei, pronounced himself: 'The 4300 million that have to be paid on Friday include interest in addition to amortization. But it is not a problem, it is normal at these levels of debt'.
