Capital Markets

Argentina’s historic issuance of $16.5bn worth of bonds in April 2016 marked the country’s return to the international capital markets after effectively being barred for 15 years. Argentina has had a troubling history in global markets, having defaulted on its sovereign debt eight times since 1816, the most significant being the 2001 default on more than $80bn. Since taking office, President Mauricio Macri’s administration has successfully reached an agreement with its holdout creditors and implemented a number of market-friendly reforms, ranging from lifting currency restrictions to abolishing export quotas. While this helped to significantly improve investor confidence in the nation, bolstering its performance across most metrics, some of these gains have been eroded in the early months of 2018, amid creeping inflation and a shift away from emerging market equities among investors. This chapter features an interview with Marcos Ayerra, President, Comisión Nacional de Valores.