Argentina President-Elect Fernandez Says He Won’t Rush Debt Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernandez 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 Pagina 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. Nielsen will be “very close” to Fernandez, but he declined to elaborate on the role he will have.

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

Fernandez 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% is in the hands of two. In the beer sector, everything is in the hands of three operators,” he said.

Fernandez 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.

--With assistance from Carolina Millan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Stillman in Mexico City at astillman7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, James Ludden

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