US treasury secretary says Argentina has repaid its US credit line in a win for Milei

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina has repaid the funds it drew from a $20 billion credit line with the Trump administration, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday, in a crucial step for Argentine President Javier Milei to restore confidence in his chronically distressed economy.

In addition to making payments to bondholders, Milei’s radical libertarian administration had “quickly and fully repaid its limited draw,” Bessent said, without specifying the amount.

The Treasury’s latest report on the status of the credit line said that Argentina’s central bank had traded pesos for $2.5 billion through the swap as of the end of October.

The Argentine Central Bank confirmed Bessent’s announcement.

The contentious and largely unprecedented U.S. rescue provided dollar liquidity to the Trump administration’s cash-strapped ideological ally and halted a market rout in Argentina ahead of crucial midterm elections last October.

Milei’s libertarian party won a major victory in the vote, cementing support for his harsh austerity program and quelling investor concerns about the crisis-stricken country’s ability to repay debts. In another sign of the revived optimism around Milei’s reforms, his government issued a dollar bond for the first time in eight years last month, presaging a return to international bond markets.

Thanks to Argentina’s deposit, Bessent said, the U.S. Exchange Stabilization Fund tapped for the bailout holds no more Argentine pesos.

He praised the payment as a landmark that justified the Treasury’s bailout of Argentina, which raised doubts about the consistency of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and drew backlash in the U.S. for putting taxpayer funds at risk. Experts have also criticized the opaque and apparently unconditional nature of the loan.

“Stabilizing a strong American ally – and making tens of millions in profit for Americans – is an America First homerun deal,” Bessent wrote. “Setting the course for Latin America, a strong and stable Argentina that helps anchor a prosperous Western Hemisphere is in our clear best interest.”

Luis Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister thanked the Trump administration “for the trust in our economic policy.”

“It is an excellent reality for our country to have been able to build this geopolitical alliance and to know that we have the explicit support of the most important country in the world,” he said.

But Argentina is not out of the woods.

Its foreign exchange reserves still run perilously low. The country is set to come under further strain in the coming months from repayments on previous International Monetary Fund loans and other private debt.