Overview
- The government covered the payment with Treasury balances, about $2.3 billion from the Comahue dam privatizations, and roughly $1.2–$1.3 billion drawn from a $3 billion BCRA repo.
- The central bank’s repo runs about one year at SOFR plus 400 basis points (near 7.4% annually) and involved BBVA, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of China and Santander, with total bids near $4.4 billion.
- Roughly $692 million of the $4.218 billion payment was intra-public sector, limiting the net dollar outflow to private holders.
- The Finance Secretariat will publish its instrument menu on Jan. 12 ahead of a Jan. 14 sale to roll 19.3 trillion pesos in Lecaps due Jan. 16, with OPC estimating about half of that stock is held by state entities.
- BCRA reported net reserve purchases of about $218 million in the first week of January, while analysts caution the recent calm reflects Treasury dollar sales and short-term financing; remaining 2026 dollar obligations are estimated near $8.8–$9.0 billion, rising to about $23 billion in 2027.