...- Argentina announced a peso-debt exchange aimed at pushing maturities from June to September beyond this year's elections into 2024 and 2025 by offering a mix of inflation-linked and dual (inflation- and exchange rate-linked) peso-denominated securities. - In line with the peso-debt exchanges conducted in January and March, we consider this transaction distressed based on the likelihood of conventional default--absent participation of creditors--given the sovereign's pronounced macroeconomic vulnerabilities and limited ability to extend maturity and place paper in the local market without reliance on exchanges. - We view a distressed exchange as tantamount to default, and, as a result, we lowered our local currency sovereign credit ratings on Argentina to '##/##' from '###-/C'. We affirmed our '###-/C' foreign currency ratings. Upon completion of the debt exchange, we would likely raise our long-term local currency rating to the '###' category. - The negative outlook on the long-term foreign...
