Overview
- Argentina, which purchased Special Drawing Rights from the U.S. Treasury on Thursday, plans to settle about $800 million in IMF interest on Friday, May 1.
- Officials said the SDR deal is a straight purchase, not a loan, and it is the third such operation in about six months.
- SDRs are the IMF’s unit of account, so countries that lack them must buy SDRs from members with surpluses to make payments.
- The Treasury raised about $848 million this week in local dollar bonds and more than $2.2 billion in recent weeks, yet deposits at the central bank stood near $549 million because dollars were used for external obligations.
- A $4.2 billion payment to private bondholders in July looms with an estimated $2 billion gap, while the government awaits a roughly $1 billion IMF disbursement and pursues a multilateral‑guaranteed bank loan and privatization proceeds; further IMF payments fall in August, September, November, and December.