{"id":397957,"date":"2026-01-09T21:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/397957\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:35:08","slug":"bessent-says-argentina-has-repaid-its-us-credit-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/397957\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessent says Argentina has repaid its US credit line"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) \u2014 Argentina has repaid the funds it drew from a $20 billion credit line<\/a> with the Trump administration, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> announced Friday, in a crucial step for Argentine President Javier Milei<\/a> to restore confidence in his chronically distressed economy.<\/p>\n

In addition to making payments to bondholders, Milei\u2019s radical libertarian administration had \u201cquickly and fully repaid its limited draw,\u201d Bessent said, without specifying the amount.<\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s latest report on the status of the credit line said that Argentina\u2019s central bank had traded pesos for $2.5 billion through the swap as of the end of October. <\/p>\n

The Argentine Central Bank confirmed Bessent\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

The contentious and largely unprecedented U.S. rescue provided dollar liquidity to the Trump administration\u2019s cash-strapped ideological ally<\/a> and halted a market rout<\/a> in Argentina ahead of crucial midterm elections last October.<\/p>\n

Milei\u2019s libertarian party won a major victory<\/a> in the vote, cementing support for his harsh austerity program<\/a> and quelling investor concerns about the crisis-stricken country\u2019s ability to repay debts. In another sign of the revived optimism around Milei\u2019s reforms, his government issued a dollar bond<\/a> for the first time in eight years last month, presaging a return to international bond markets. <\/p>\n

Thanks to Argentina\u2019s deposit, Bessent said, the U.S. Exchange Stabilization Fund tapped for the bailout holds no more Argentine pesos. <\/p>\n

He praised the payment as a landmark that justified the Treasury\u2019s bailout of Argentina<\/a>, which raised doubts about the consistency of Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy<\/a> and drew backlash in the U.S. for putting taxpayer funds at risk. Experts have also criticized the opaque and apparently unconditional nature of the loan.<\/p>\n

\u201cStabilizing a strong American ally \u2013 and making tens of millions in profit for Americans \u2013 is an America First homerun deal,\u201d Bessent wrote. \u201cSetting the course for Latin America, a strong and stable Argentina that helps anchor a prosperous Western Hemisphere is in our clear best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luis Caputo, Argentina\u2019s economy minister thanked the Trump administration \u201cfor the trust in our economic policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an excellent reality for our country to have been able to build this geopolitical alliance and to know that we have the explicit support of the most important country in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Argentina is not out of the woods. <\/p>\n

Its foreign exchange reserves still run perilously low. The country is set to come under further strain in the coming months from repayments on previous International Monetary Fund loans<\/a> and other private debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) \u2014 Argentina has repaid the funds it drew from a $20 billion credit line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[15665,126173,28,14271,12,109,101,1904,793,101549,3140,126175,111,4666,18598,21,792,965],"class_list":["post-397957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-argentina","tag-argentina-government","tag-business","tag-central-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-policy","tag-economy","tag-financial-services","tag-general-news","tag-javier-milei","tag-latin-america","tag-luis-caputo","tag-politics","tag-scott-bessent","tag-south-america","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}