Argentina’s President Javier Milei said that the country is in “very advanced” negotiations with the United States over a loan as the country faces down large debt payments in 2026.
Asked by Córdoba-based newspaper La Voz del Interior whether his government was in talks with the U.S. about a financing deal, Milei said:
“We understood that this year was going to be very complicated and we had already started developing strategies to cover the payments Argentina has next year, which are US$4 billion in January and US$4.5 billion in July. So we’ve been working, those negotiations take time, but, well, until it’s confirmed we’re not making any announcements. But we are working really hard, we’re very advanced, and it’s a matter of time, too.”
His comments, which had not been confirmed by U.S. officials at the time of writing, come in a week when Argentina’s Central Bank has sold off more than US$1 billion to support the value of the peso as political uncertainty grows ahead of the mid-term elections.
Argentina’s peso is subject to a banded exchange rate scheme under which the monetary authority can only intervene if the peso strengthens or weakens beyond set thresholds. The system was agreed in the context of Argentina’s US$20 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced in April.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Thursday night that he was willing to sell “down to the last dollar” to defend the currency. Given Argentina’s feeble international reserves, his comments prompted speculation that the government were expecting an injection of cash.
Milei’s comments were not the first hint that the Donald Trump administration would be willing to support Argentina. In April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Argentina and met Milei. After initially telling Bloomberg news agency that a special credit line from the U.S. to Argentina was “not under consideration,” he said a week later that the U.S. would offer the country a credit line if a global shock were to put the country’s economic recovery at risk.
Such a loan would go through the Exchange Stabilization Fund, which the United States formed in the 1930s. It is a U.S. emergency reserve fund which is often used to help foreign governments and central banks to stabilize their currencies.