The head of the United States Treasury, Scott Bessent, has announced he is working to corral the private sector around a new $20bn “facility” to support Argentina’s embattled economy.
“We are working on a $20bn facility that would be adjacent to our swap line, of private banks and sovereign wealth funds that I think would be more aimed at the debt market,” he told reporters on Wednesday in Washington, DC.
Bessent added that he had spent “weeks” working on the private-sector solution to Argentina’s upcoming debt payments, which would come on top of the $20bn currency swap the US Treasury recently set up to prop up the country’s peso.
“So that would be a total of 40 billion for Argentina,” he said, in remarks that triggered a rebound on Argentinian stocks.
Bessent’s comments mark the latest round of US support for Argentina’s right-wing populist leader Javier Milei, whose party faces an uphill battle in the country’s midterm elections later this month.
Milei enacted sweeping budget cuts after taking office in 2023 in a bid to quell inflation and turn the Argentinian economy around, drawing fierce opposition and widespread protests.
But US President Donald Trump, a fellow right-wing leader, has maintained close relations with Milei. In 2024, a presidential spokesperson for Milei revealed that Trump called the Argentinian leader his “favourite president”.
On Tuesday, President Trump once again hosted Milei at the White House and threw his support behind him before the elections.
He also suggested that the US’s economic support was contingent on Milei’s continued success at the ballot box.
“If he does win, we’re going to be very helpful,” Trump said. “And if he doesn’t win, we’re not going to waste our time, because you have somebody whose philosophy has no chance of making Argentina great again.”
Trump repeated the sentiment several times during Tuesday’s meeting. “If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” he warned.
But in his comments on Wednesday, Bessent appeared to walk back some of the implications of those statements.
He clarified that the US would continue to support Argentina financially as long as President Milei’s government pursues “good policies”, regardless of the outcome of this month’s election.
The strong showing of US support this week unfolded on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC.
The IMF, which has its own multibillion-dollar loan programme with Buenos Aires, has supported the US’s bilateral support for Argentina’s economy.
In a broadcast interview on Wednesday, Milei said he was confident of US financial support so long as he remains in office. He also pledged to maintain his libertarian agenda.
“We continue to advance the ideas of freedom, so at least until 2027 we have that support assured,” he said, according to the dubbed-over voiceover of an English interpreter.
Milei, an economist, voiced hope that the midterm elections would increase his base to allow him to pursue his policies.
“I have no intention of changing course until the end of my term,” he said. “I am committed to the agenda of lowering taxes, deregulating and keeping the economy growing.”
Bessent said Milei would continue to enjoy US support for as long as he had a blocking veto on legislation in Argentina’s Congress.
“It is not election-specific. It is policy-specific,” he said. “So as long as Argentina continues enacting good policy, they will have US support.”
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