Relevamiento de Títulos de Deuda y Otros Pasivos Externos

This report presents the update at the end of March 2004 of the data collected on the external liabilities of the private sector from the survey implemented by the Central Bank

The external debt of the private sector totaled US$ 47,541 million as of December
31, 2005, corresponding to US$ 42,636 million (90%) to declarations submitted
by the private non-financial sector (NFPS) and US$ 4,905 million (10%) by the private financial sector
(SPF).
The reduction in the external liabilities of the private sector
continued in the fourth quarter, basically influenced by the effect of the implementation of
debt restructuring processes. The net decrease of US$ 2,113 million in the period
brought the net fall in 2005 to US$ 7,137 million, an amount that represented the
largest decrease in the sector’s external debt since 2002.

Private external debt showed a net reduction of US$ 30,555 million in
the last four years, equivalent to 40% of the amount owed at the end of 2001.
While NFPS showed a 31% drop in the last four years, the financial sector
reduced its external liabilities by 70%.
Private external liabilities as at 31.12.05 were almost equivalent to the
year’s exports of goods and services and accounted for about 30 per cent of
GDP, slightly less than at the end of 2001.
The high degree of concentration in a relatively small group of obligors has
been one of the characteristics of NFPS external obligations throughout
the series. At the end of 2005, the 50 largest NFPS debtors accounted for
51% of the sector’s external liabilities, while the top 300 accounted
for 82%.
The financial conditions in the markets were favorable for some
companies to improve the composition of their financing, allocating
approximately US$ 340 million of the US$ 711 million of fresh
funds received in the fourth quarter, to prepay obligations that, for the most part,
had arisen from refinancing carried out since the 2001 crisis.

The total pre-write-offs of financial debt in the quarter by the NFPS
amounted to US$ 732 million, as the sector pre-paid an additional US$ 390
million using its cash surpluses or other sources of local financing.
The behavior of export financing reflected in the quarter the
effects of seasonal factors and the impact of the adaptation of the export
sector to the new exchange regulations adopted to reinforce the transparency of this type
of financing. In this context, the gross amount of income from advances and
pre-financing from abroad reached the quarterly minimum of the series, although with
some recovery in December.
The fall of US$ 337 million in the external debt of the SPF in the fourth quarter of
2005 was mainly explained by the capitalization of debts in the order
of US$ 161 million.
Private entities with national capital accounted for 61% of the external
debt of the financial sector at the end of December, while entities with foreign capital
totaled 24% and public entities the remaining 15%.