Argentina Bonds, Stocks Plunge on Default Concerns
(Update15)
By John Lyons and Thomas Black
Buenos Aires, July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Argentine bonds and stocks plunged after political and union leaders withheld support for a government plan to reduce spending to avoid a default on $130 billion of debt.
Government officials said it will refinance as much as $4.8 billion in Treasury bills coming due this year with debt of longer maturities, in effect forcing local banks that have bought the T- bills and domestic pension funds to assume longer-term risk.
``The whole market's been spooked,'' said Jeremy Brewin, who manages about $50 million of emerging markets assets for Morley Fund Management in London. ``A lot of people have been running through default models.''
The country's most actively traded floating rate bond due 2005 plunged 10 to 62.88, its largest one-day drop since being issued in 1993. The bond's yield rose to 36 percent and the Merval stock index tumbled 8.6 percent to 310, its lowest level since Sept. 10, 1998.
Investors holding dollar-denominated Argentine bonds lost $16 billion today, J.P. Morgan Chase estimated.
``If you're running an emerging markets fund right now, your clients are losing money,'' said Jonathan Binder, who manages about $400 million for Standard Asset Management in Miami. ``I'm definitely frustrated with this country. These politicians have their heads in the sand.''
Standard & Poor's lowered the country's credit rating to ``B- '' from ``B'', citing ``growing strain on the cohesion on the governing coalition.''
The government was forced to pay a record 14 percent to domestic banks on Tuesday to refinance debt coming due this week, provoking a sell-off of Argentine dollar bonds. The government must reduce spending to make its debt payments as a three-year recession reduces tax revenue and interest payments.
Reduce Spending
The government expects to reduce state salaries, pensions and payments to suppliers by about 12 percent, saving $200 million per month in expenditures, Economy Ministry officials said. The reduction would trim spending by $1.4 billion this year and $4.25 billion in 2002, said Guillermo Mondino, chief economic adviser for Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo.
The Economy Ministry is pressuring the country's 23 provinces to cut another $1.77 billion of spending over the next 18 months, Mondino said on conference call with investors.
Argentina's debt plunge led investors to flee other markets in the region. The Chilean peso plummeted to a record low for the fourth day, while the Brazilian real tumbled to its lowest level since the currency was created in 1995.
Brazilian bonds also fell as investors fled to the safety of U.S. debt. The widely traded Brazilian ``C'' bond sank 1.6 to 68.69. The yield surged to 15.4 percent, or 1,066 basis points above U.S. Treasury bonds.
In the U.S., the most actively traded 10-year note rose 3/8 to a price of 98 7/32, according to UBS Warburg LLC. Its yield fell 5 basis points to 5.24 percent, the lowest level in more than two weeks. The 30-year bond rose 1/2 to 96 1/32 as its yield dropped 3 basis points to 5.65 percent.
A J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s EMBI+ index of emerging market debt dropped 4.6 percent. Russian dollar-denominated bonds fell an average 3.8 percent, with spreads widening to 990 basis points over similar Treasury bonds. Debt from Russia, Argentina and Brazil make up more than half of all trading in the emerging markets.
In 1998, an economic tailspin by southeast Asia spread through emerging markets and led Russia to default on $35 billion in bonds. The ensuing cash crunch forced Brazil to devalue its currency and led most of Latin America into recession.
Government Efforts
``Our strategy is to reduce the amount of debt we must roll over each month,'' Finance Undersecretary Julio Dreizzen told investors on a conference call today.
The government must pay off $4 billion of bonds coming due over the next six months in addition to the $4.8 billion of Treasury bills, Dreizzen said. Loans from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other international lenders will cover most of these maturing bonds, he said.
The government's attempts to rally support for the spending reductions were met with little enthusiasm by political and union leaders.
``We're not going to support the measures if they aren't in line with our convictions,'' said Raul Alfonsin, head of President Fernando de la Rua's Radical Party. The former president, who left office six months before his term was up in 1989 amid hyperinflation, has rejected any cuts and called for increased social spending.
Rating downgrades
On Thursday, Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on Argentina to a B- from a B and maintained a negative outlook. The cut comes a day after international debt-rating firm Fitch downgraded the country's sovereign rating to B- from B+.
S&P said that the government's cost-cutting measures aimed to boost the economy, which is mired in a three-year recession, have faced internal challenges with opposition governors.
"With the economy unlikely to pick up before next year at the earliest, the spending cuts necessary to balance the budget will severely test the government's resolve -- possibly to the breaking point," S&P said.
S&P also affirmed its single-C short-term credit rating for Argentina.
Late on Thursday, Fitch downgraded several individual Argentine corporations while maintaining a negative outlook. Fitch also lowered Argentina's foreign currency country ceiling, which reflects the risk of sovereign interference into the foreign exchange for debt service purposes, to B+ from BB-.