Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa signed bilateral agreements on Monday with three members of the Paris Club – Spain, France and Sweden – to refinance Argentina’s debt. 

The signatures, which come in the wake of the agreement Argentina reached with the organization in October 2022, means the country now has bilateral agreements in place with 15 of the 16 creditors from the institution.

“Minister Massa continues with the task of organizing the economy, and signed Paris Club agreements with three European countries: France, Spain and Sweden,” Gustavo Martínez Pandiani, Massa’s diplomatic advisor, told the Herald.

“These agreements guarantee the sustainability of the debt profile and strengthen economic recovery, which is what matters most to the people and to economic actors.”

The October 2022 deal meant that all the debt was reprogrammed through payments to be made through 13 consecutive semesters, ending in 2028. This modified the 2014 Joint Declaration, which had been in arrears since Argentina suspended payments in 2019. While the October agreement was made with the Paris Club as a whole, Argentina has to sign individual agreements on a country-by-country basis.

“In October, we negotiated the total amount of the debt, then we went through negotiating one by one how much corresponds to each country: how much the capitalizations were, how much hadn’t been paid, and then specific clauses for each contract,” a senior source with knowledge of the matter told the Herald.

“It doesn’t change the financial conditions agreed in October.”

Interest rates will start at 3.5% and rise for some of the later quotas, averaging at 4.5%, the source added. 

France, Spain and Sweden join twelve other countries that have signed deals with Argentina in recent months: Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Israel, Finland, Austria, Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Paris Club is a group of representatives from significant creditor countries who aim to help find sustainable solutions for countries that are struggling to pay their debts.

Massa said that the deals would allow public and private sector alike to secure financing for major infrastructure projects that will promote exports of goods and services from regions across Argentina.