Argentina’s Finance Secretariat announced on Thursday that it had ended a bond auction without being able to cover all maturities, a first in Javier Milei’s administration. The government celebrated the news, saying that it reflects that banks have begun lending to the private sector.

Some analysts, however, are skeptical and posit that it’s too early to tell whether this was indicative of the success of the economic plan or just of the investors’ disinterest in the bonds due to their low interest rates.

The Treasury placed debt for AR$4.78 trillion, while facing maturities of AR$7.1 trillion for next Monday. The rest of the maturities will be covered with “pesos that the Treasury keeps at the Central Bank for this purpose,” according to a post on X by Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno.

“This means that AR$2.32 trillion of the peso debt with the private sector has been reduced,” he added. Quirno said that this is part of the “peso remonetization process” which was “foreseen since the beginning of the program.” He called it a........

© Buenos Aires Herald