...March 30, 2023 - On March 29, 2023, we lowered our long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on Argentina to '###-' from '###+'. The long-term local currency rating remained unchanged at '###-'. The outlook on long-term ratings remained negative, reflecting risks surrounding pronounced economic imbalances and policy uncertainties before and after the 2023 national elections. - Last week, Argentina decreed that certain nonfinancial public-sector entities (predominantly the social security institute, ANSES) must exchange or sell their holdings of dollar-denominated global- and local-law bonds issued in the 2020 restructuring for local-law peso-denominated debt. - Since these bonds are intra-government holdings, we don't consider the transaction tantamount to default under our sovereign methodology (which focuses on commercial debt), but the proposed transaction suggests heightened risks and vulnerabilities surrounding repayment of foreign currency commercial debt. - These factors...
