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| - Argentina's tug-of-war negotiation with creditors over a $66 billion debt restructure could drag on for some time yet, President Alberto Fernandez said on Friday. "The negotiation is progressing between tugs. In 2005, when we renegotiated the debt, a year went by. Now two or three months have gone by and we're being asked for results. What's needed is less worry and to keep on working," Fernandez told Radio Nacional as Argentina reached yet another deadline to find an agreement. For the fourth time, that deadline is expected to be extended. It comes in a week in which the renegotiation talks appeared to have broken down after one group of creditors, representing 13 international funds, revealed on Tuesday night it would not accept Argentina's latest offer and was considering taking the South American country to court in New York. Crisis-wracked Argentina has proposed an exchange to bondholders under foreign law, but has yet to find common ground over interest rates and a grace period. "We're confident we will reach an agreement. But COVID-19 totally complicated everything. Many of the creditors are banking on the pandemic passing to negotiate in better conditions," added Fernandez. Already reeling from two years of recession, Argentina's economy has been further punished by the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to shrink by 6.5 percent this year. Argentina has received backing from the International Monetary Fund in its bid to come to an agreement with creditors, but Fernandez insists any new deal must be sustainable. The bonds Argentina is trying to exchange represent almost a fifth of the country's $324 billion debt, which amounts to around 90 percent of its GDP. dm/nn/mr/bc/st
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