Treasury completes roughly $800 million IMF payment; reserves fall as mission remains in Buenos Aires

Published 2026-09-26 · Updated 2026-10-09

What happened

The Treasury paid about USD 800 million to the IMF on September 25. Ámbito reported that gross reserves fell USD 1.553 billion over the week and that the BCRA did not buy dollars in the official market, while El Cronista reported that the Economy Ministry is defining how to cover a new maturity during the IMF mission's visit.

Why it matters

An external debt payment of this size reduces liquid buffers unless it is offset by new financing or market purchases. When reserve accumulation is weak, the payment can change near-term expectations on exchange-rate policy, intervention capacity, and the government's sequencing of IMF talks and other funding sources.

Argentina's Treasury completed an IMF amortization payment of roughly USD 800 million on September 25, while local coverage tied the operation to a weekly reserve drop and the absence of central-bank dollar purchases. The payment lands while an IMF mission is in the country, putting near-term focus on how the government will fund upcoming external obligations and whether reserve use alters exchange-rate management. For macro policy, the immediate issue is not the payment itself but the financing mix and the room it leaves for intervention, imports, and confidence management over the next several days.

Watch for

BCRA reserve data release on 2026-09-29 showing whether gross reserves stabilize after the IMF payment Economy Ministry statement by 2026-09-29 identifying the funding source for the next IMF maturity IMF mission communication from Buenos Aires by 2026-09-29 on program talks, disbursement timing, or review progress BCRA foreign-exchange market data on 2026-09-29 and 2026-09-30 showing renewed official dollar purchases or another net-zero/negative session

Sources

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