Although the Argentine finance secretary, Guillermo Nielsen, met ACAG in New York before Christmas, little progress was made. The government is getting close to the deadline set by a New York judge, Thomas Griesa, who gave the country until the end of January to reach an agreement with its creditors. Otherwise, he implied, he would allow creditors holding US$8.5bn worth of Argentine debt to start attaching Argentine assets (ie, seizing property belonging to the Argentine government).
Separately, holders of Argentine commercial debt complain about the government's suggestion that they should register their holdings with the government. The government announced the scheme on 25 December to make it clearer exactly who owns the US$88bn debt.
The bondholders, many of whom are located in Italy and Germany, reject the idea. They believe that the Argentine government is trying to delay negotiating a compromise for the debt. The government is under pressure from the IMF to get a move on with sorting out the debt. It has, however, refused to increase the target for the primary fiscal surplus (3% of GDP ) for 2004.
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