Alberto Fernández says he won't rush debt deal

President-elect Alberto Fernández says he won’t rush the debt agreement process to ensure he gets a good deal for the country.

“We don’t want to sign anything and then regret it,” he said in an interview for Página/12  released on Sunday.

“We don’t want to run after the timelines for the bondholders, we want to run after the timeline that’s best for Argentines.”

He said he listens to Guillermo Nielsen, the debt negotiator for Argentina in 2005, on debt, but that he’s looking to make the final decisions himself. v

Nielsen will be “very close” to Fernández, but he declined to elaborate on the role he will have.

Investors fear that Fernández, who was elected on a wave of popular discontent with fiscal austerity and takes office December 10, doesn’t have a clear strategy to save the country from financial ruin, and his leadership could lead to a debt default.

Fernández said that the oil, mining and agricultural industries should make more of an effort on taxes, and he warned of oligopolistic tendencies in some sectors such as beer and milk.

“In the dairy sector, almost 100 percent is in the hands of two. In the beer sector, everything is in the hands of three operators,” he said.

Fernández said he will send a package of bills to Congress next month. He previously said he’d review the government’s spending plans for 2020 and suggested his predecessor’s draft budget was faulty, without providing details.

– Bloomberg