Argentina’s stock market fell 8.4 percent on Thursday after the country slid into what Standard & Poor is calling a selective default. Despite emergency negotiations Wednesday night, holdout bondholders and Argentina’s Finance Minister Axel Kicillof were unable to reach a compromise.
The default crisis was sparked by lawsuits led by Paul Singer for $1.5 billion after the country defaulted on its bonds in 2001. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration foreshadowed the default in June after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling requiring Argentina to pay the full amount owed to hold-out bondholders.
This is the second default the country has seen in 13 years. While Argentina is bracing for higher inflation and increased cost of borrowing, the consequences are not predicted to be as dire as in 2001 when the banking system failed leading to an economic collapse.
