The National Public Sector (NPS) recorded a primary surplus of 24.07 billion pesos ($269.19 mn) in January. Meanwhile, interest payments on public debt, net of intra-public sector payments, amounted to 27.10 billion pesos ($303.07 mn), so the NPS financial result was a deficit of 3.03 billion pesos ($33.88 mn).

A report by JP Morgan, entitled "Argentina: the monetary policy labyrinth", notes that the BCRA's net or freely available reserves, which do not include loans and private deposits, are close to $3 trillion, including gold holdings. The BCRA would find it challenging to dispose today of the $2.4 billion needed to cancel a payment with the Paris Club at the end of May; moreover, renegotiating the Paris Club's maturity requires having signed the extended facilities agreement with the IMF, due to statutory issues.

According to official statistics, 47 per cent of the population - 21 million people - are poor because they live in precarious, overcrowded conditions, have problems with school attendance, precarious employment or access to health care. The most affected are children: 55 per cent of children under the age of 18 in Argentina live in this condition.