Argentina Bonds Pressured as Milei’s Approval Slides to 35.5%
Key Points
—President Javier Milei’s approval rating fell to 35.5% in April from 44% in January, while disapproval climbed from 51.6% to 63%, according to AtlasIntel polling for Bloomberg.
—Argentine sovereign dollar bonds maturing October 2028 — twelve months after the next presidential election — yield 8.3%, a 360 basis-point premium over comparable bonds maturing October 2027 within Milei’s term.
—Credit default swaps now imply a 22% three-year default probability and almost 60% over a decade — investor caution is rising despite a primary surplus and falling inflation.
Six months after his midterm landslide, the bond market has begun to price the same question Argentine voters are asking: what comes after Milei.
Pressure on Argentina bonds Milei investors had been counting on resumed this week as polling showed the libertarian president’s approval rating at its lowest point since taking office. AtlasIntel’s LatAm Pulse for Bloomberg measured Milei at 35.5% approval and 63% disapproval in April, down from 44%/51.6% at the start of the year. The data prompted a fresh round of bond curve repricing across the sovereign dollar curve.
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the most visible market signal sits in the maturity gap. Argentine local-law dollar notes maturing October 2028 — a year after the next presidential election — now yield 8.3%, a 360 basis-point premium over equivalent bonds maturing October 2027, before the vote. The same steepening shows in inflation-linked peso bonds, where June 2028 paper has climbed from 5.5% to 7.9% over the past month while June 2027 paper trades at a negative real rate of 1.2%.
What Argentina Bonds Milei Investors Are Pricing
Credit default swaps now indicate a roughly 5% default probability over the next year, climbing to 22% over three years and almost 60% over a decade, according to Max Capital and Portfolio Personal Inversiones. The CDS curve shape mirrors the bond curve — investors are comfortable with near-term Milei but discount sharply for political reversal beyond 2027. Pedro Siaba Serrate, head of research at PPI, told Bloomberg the steepening reflects secondary effects of the economic transition that the post-honeymoon polling has now made visible.
The trigger for the latest move was political, not macroeconomic. Milei’s October 2025 midterm landslide had pushed JP Morgan‘s EMBI+ Argentina country risk indicator from above 1,000 basis points down to the 580 range, and Economy Minister Luis “Toto” Caputo has said publicly that risk should now be near 300 bp. The market had agreed for several months — until April polling data confirmed that the post-honeymoon erosion is consolidating across regions and demographics.
Live Market IntelligenceArgentina — Live Market Board
Rio Times · Live Market Intelligence
Argentina — Live Market Board
-1.08%
176,769
+0.32%
68,627
+0.43%
10,752
+1.78%
2,846,220
-1.08%
2,118
-0.22%
19,767
+0.37%
| Instrument | Last | Change | YoY | Prev. | High | Low | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MERVAL | 2,846,220 | -1.08% | +20.05% | 2,877,439 | 2,870,946 | 2,842,298 | — |
| USD/ARS | 1,399 | -0.14% | +23.38% | 1,401 | 1,399 | 1,399 | — |
| YPF | 71,025 | +0.25% | +64.31% | 70,850 | 72,300 | 70,500 | 188,422 |
| GGAL | 6,455 | -0.54% | -11.26% | 6,490 | 6,600 | 6,390 | 1,681,932 |
| PAMPA | 4,793 | -0.93% | +27.06% | 4,838 | 4,903 | 4,755 | 437,582 |
| TXAR | 638.00 | +0.08% | -8.82% | 637.50 | 643.00 | 608.50 | 461,037 |
| ALUAR | 947.00 | +2.05% | +14.98% | 928.00 | 949.00 | 910.00 | 243,401 |
| TGS | 8,685 | -1.81% | +21.22% | 8,845 | 8,850 | 8,600 | 277,281 |
| CEPU | 2,077 | -3.03% | +32.63% | 2,142 | 2,186 | 2,075 | 651,042 |
| MIRGOR | 16,350 | +0.46% | -29.72% | 16,275 | 16,500 | 16,025 | 2,084 |
| COME | 43.70 | -2.35% | -39.79% | 44.75 | 45.40 | 43.54 | 4,649,516 |
| LOMA NEGRA | 3,275 | -2.24% | +1.37% | 3,350 | 3,353 | 3,265 | 149,155 |
| BYMA | 286.00 | +3.44% | +27.38% | 276.50 | 287.00 | 274.00 | 4,702,808 |
| TELECOM ARG | 3,493 | -1.06% | +45.29% | 3,530 | 3,645 | 3,490 | 13,134 |
| GLOBANT | 40.13 | -1.23% | -60.12% | 40.63 | 42.02 | 39.10 | 1,204,453 |
| MERCADOLIBRE | 1,664 | -0.80% | -33.63% | 1,678 | 1,704 | 1,650 | 399,474 |
Why Argentina Bonds Milei Yields Look Sticky
Argentina faces more than US$8.4 billion in foreign-currency bond maturities in 2026 alone, and gross debt remains near 80% of GDP despite the primary surplus. The central bank’s net reserves are only slightly positive, and Caputo’s earlier plan to return to international debt markets has been pushed back as the Iran war and broader risk-off conditions raise spreads across emerging-market sovereigns. Coface and Allianz both project Argentina inflation at 17-18% in 2026, the highest in the G20.
Sectors that voted for Milei expecting recovery have not seen it materialize. Manufacturing, retail, and construction continue to underperform, and the government’s reform agenda — labor modernization passed earlier in 2026 — has not yet translated into job creation. Milei told supporters in early April that the recent months had been hard but reaffirmed the path, asking voters for patience and warning that changing course would mean undoing what had already been achieved.
Argentina Bonds Milei Outlook Through October 2027
The next two market tests are concrete and dated. The IMF’s third review of the US$20 billion program is due in mid-2026 and will determine whether disbursement schedules remain on track. The October 2026 mid-year political polling cycle will indicate whether Milei’s approval erosion has stabilized or accelerated, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s continued willingness to backstop Argentine bonds — already used during the October 2025 election — is the cleanest single political risk control variable.
For investors tracking Argentina’s broader risk profile, the message of the past week is that fiscal discipline alone is no longer enough — political durability is becoming the binding constraint on yield compression. Milei’s program has delivered the macroeconomic results he promised, but the bond market is now pricing the structural question of whether those results survive a hostile successor, and the 360-basis-point gap between 2027 and 2028 maturities is the dollar value the market currently assigns to that uncertainty. Until polls turn or institutional anchors deepen, that premium will not compress.
Related Coverage
Argentina Economy 2026 Guide → • Argentina Country Risk Milei • Argentina Bond Sale Reversal Risk