Argentina Starts Repaying Its 2022 IMF Loan With US$793 Million
ARGENTINA · ECONOMY
Key Facts
- —The country Argentina has about 46 million people, roughly as many as Spain, and Latin America’s third-largest economy, about the size of Belgium’s. It is also the IMF’s biggest borrower.
- —Why it matters Argentina owes the International Monetary Fund about US$58 billion. Most is a 2022 loan that refinanced a record 2018 rescue; the rest is a US$20 billion 2025 programme.
- —Why now Principal on the 2022 loan starts falling due this month, four and a half years after the first drawing. An IMF team is in Buenos Aires reviewing the 2025 programme.
- —What happened On Friday 25 September Argentina owes the IMF about US$793 million, its first repayment of principal since 2024. The Treasury is paying from its dollar deposits.
- —The numbers Gross central bank reserves stood at US$48.8 billion on 24 September. Another US$865 million in IMF interest and charges falls due in early November.
- —What it means for you The payment was scheduled and funded, and analysts say net reserves are unchanged. The bigger test for investors is about US$4.3 billion owed to bondholders in January.
- —Still open Whether IMF staff sign off the review, releasing about US$865 million, and how far the payment pulls down the reserve figure.
Argentina is paying the International Monetary Fund about US$793 million on Friday 25 September. Unlike the interest bills paid in 2025 and 2026, this Argentina IMF repayment returns borrowed principal, the first since 2024.
It opens the payback of a loan taken in 2022, whose principal now falls due in regular instalments. An IMF team is in Buenos Aires the same week, deciding whether to release new money.
What Argentina is paying on Friday
The bill is 583.3 million special drawing rights. The special drawing right, or SDR, is the IMF’s own accounting unit, built from a basket of five major currencies.
At the IMF’s rate for 25 September, one SDR was worth US$1.36008, so the payment comes to about US$793.4 million. Argentine outlets using earlier rates put it at between US$797 million and US$803 million.
At the central bank’s official rate of 1,518.74 pesos per dollar on 24 September, it equals 1.2 trillion pesos (about US$793 million).
The IMF’s schedule lists it as a “GRA repurchase (EFF)”. In plain terms, it repays principal on an Extended Fund Facility, the Fund’s longer-term loan.
Such loans are repaid in twelve half-yearly slices, starting four and a half years after each drawing. Argentina drew SDR 7 billion (about US$9.5 billion at today’s rate) in March 2022; one twelfth of that is SDR 583.3 million (about US$793 million).
Interest and fees are billed separately, four times a year. IMF records show Argentina paid SDR 1.71 billion (about US$2.3 billion) of them from January to August, but no principal.
Part of those fees are surcharges, extra rates the Fund charges countries that borrow far beyond their quota. Argentina’s debt equals more than 13 times its quota, IMF data show.
Why Argentina owes the IMF so much
Argentina joined the Fund in 1956 and has borrowed from it many times. Today’s debt goes back to 2018, when President Mauricio Macri’s government took the largest loan in IMF history.
That stand-by loan was approved at SDR 40.7 billion, then about US$57 billion. Argentina drew SDR 31.9 billion (about US$43 billion at today’s rate) before the programme ended in 2020.
In 2022, under President Alberto Fernández, a new extended loan of SDR 31.9 billion refinanced it. It matched the 2018 drawings almost exactly, because its job was to repay them.
In April 2025 President Javier Milei’s government agreed a third arrangement, of SDR 15.3 billion, presented as US$20 billion. About SDR 11.5 billion (about US$15.6 billion) of it has been paid out.
At the end of August Argentina owed the Fund SDR 42.6 billion, about US$58 billion. It is the Fund’s largest debtor, Bloomberg Línea notes.
What the payment does to the reserves
Argentina’s central bank, the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA), holds the country’s foreign-currency reserves. Gross reserves closed at US$48.845 billion on Thursday 24 September, their lowest level this month, Ámbito reported.
They had fallen US$481 million on Wednesday, partly on a US$100 million payment to CAF, a Latin American development bank, Noticias Argentinas reported. In mid-September they were still above US$50 billion.
The Treasury is funding the Argentina IMF repayment from its dollar deposits at the central bank, about US$2.23 billion on 22 September. It uses those dollars to buy SDRs, then hands them to the Fund, Infobae reported.
That route lowers gross reserves by roughly the size of the payment. It leaves net reserves, a stricter measure that subtracts what the bank owes, unchanged, according to El Cronista and the brokerage PPI.
PPI estimated net reserves at about US$7.57 billion on Monday 21 September.
The worry is the pace of new dollars. The central bank bought more than US$14 billion this year, but only about US$232 million in September to the 24th.
The IMF review under way in Buenos Aires
An IMF staff team arrived on Monday 21 September for the third review of the 2025 programme. It is led by Joyce Wong, on her first review as mission chief for Argentina.
The team is checking budget and reserve targets with the economy ministry and the central bank. Economy Minister Luis Caputo was in New York with Milei for the United Nations General Assembly.
If staff agree, and the IMF Executive Board then approves, Argentina can draw SDR 636 million, about US$865 million. The government plans to use it to refill the Treasury deposits spent on Friday.
No staff-level agreement had been announced by Friday. Finance Secretary Federico Furiase said on Monday that the targets were “super cumplidas”, or more than met.
A difficult week for the economy
The payment lands in a rough week. On Thursday the statistics agency INDEC reported that activity fell 2.9% in July from June, as covered in Argentina Economic Activity Falls 2.9% in July, Worst Month Since 2020.
INDEC also said 32.3% of people in the main cities were poor in the first half of 2026, up from 28.2%. The details are in Argentina Poverty Rate Rises to 32.3%, Up 4.1 Points in Six Months.
The same day the Senate passed Milei’s rewrite of the central bank’s charter by 46 votes to 22. Its changes send it back to the lower house, as reported in Argentina Central Bank Reform Clears Senate 46–22, Heads Back to Deputies.
What comes next
After this Argentina IMF repayment, the next bill arrives in early November: SDR 636 million (about US$865 million) of interest and charges. On 24 December a second principal slice of SDR 250 million (about US$340 million) is due.
Then, on 9 January, Argentina owes bondholders about US$4.3 billion on its Globales and Bonares, the bonds from its 2020 restructuring. That is the next big test of the Treasury’s dollars.
The IMF bills keep growing. The Fund’s own projections put Argentina’s payments at about US$7.7 billion in 2027 and US$9.6 billion in 2028, at today’s SDR rate.
What Friday’s payment does not mean matters too. It is not a sign of trouble: it was scheduled years ago, and the dollars were set aside.
Nor does it shrink Argentina’s exposure much, since roughly US$57 billion remains. And it is not new borrowing: buying SDRs to pay the Fund creates no debt, Infobae notes.
More: Argentina news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Argentina paying back the IMF or only paying interest?
Both, at different times: the US$793 million due on 25 September 2026 is principal on a 2022 loan. Interest and charges are paid separately, usually in February, May, August and November.
How much does Argentina owe the IMF?
About SDR 42.6 billion, or roughly US$58 billion, at the end of August 2026, according to IMF data. That makes Argentina the Fund’s largest debtor.
Does the payment hit Argentina’s central bank reserves?
Gross reserves fall by roughly the amount paid, because the Treasury’s dollar deposits sit at the central bank. Net reserves, which already treat those deposits as owed, are unchanged, analysts at PPI say.
When will Argentina get more money from the IMF?
Only after IMF staff and then the IMF Executive Board approve the third review now under way. That would release about US$865 million; no date has been set.
Sources: International Monetary Fund, Argentina: Financial Position in the Fund and projected payments, as of 31 August 2026; IMF, SDR valuation for 25 September 2026; Banco Central de la República Argentina, reserves and official exchange-rate series; El Cronista; Infobae; Perfil; TN; Ámbito; Noticias Argentinas; Bloomberg Línea; ADN Radio.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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