Gallagher Cosigns Commentary on Argentinian Debt Relief
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at the Frederick S. Pardee School for Global Studies at Boston University, cosigned a recent commentary in Project Syndicate on the restructuring of Argentina’s private debt.
Published on May 6, 2020, the commentary discusses a proposal to Argentina’s creditors that would create a more sustainable stream of revenue. As stated in the piece, the “responsible resolution will set a positive precedent, not only for Argentina, but for the international financial system as a whole.”
An excerpt:
Argentina has presented its private creditors a responsible offer that adequately reflects the country’s payment capacity: a three-year grace period with a minor cut in capital and a significant cut in interest. The proposal is in line with the IMF’s technical analysis, which states that substantial debt relief from Argentina’s private creditors will be needed to restore debt sustainability with high probability.
Argentina’s proposal also presents an opportunity for the international financial community to show that it can resolve a sovereign-debt crisis in an orderly, efficient, and sustainable manner. The absence of an international legal framework for sovereign-debt restructuring should not deprive indebted countries of the possibility to protect their people and provide for economic recovery during the greatest global crisis in our memory.
Read the full piece here.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is author or co-author of six books, including most recently, The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus. Read more about him here.