Argentina defers debt payments

Buenos Aires: Argentina is deferring payments of up to $9.8 billion on its local public debt in response to the coronavirus crisis, the government announced in a decree published on Monday.

The decree postpones payments on public debt issued under local law and not subject to international arbitration, as the government of President Alberto Fernandez negotiates with creditors to restructure $68.8 billion in private foreign debt.

The decree attributed the action to the global health crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which it said had "altered the deadlines anticipated" in the government´s timetable for stabilizing its debt situation.

The country, Latin America´s third largest economy, has been struggling under a protracted economic crisis that the government says has made its $311 billion public debt unsustainable.