The cessation of funding from the National Administration of Social Security (ANSES) was published on Tuesday in the Official Gazette.
Javier Milei’s government in Argentina has suspended access to loans for pensioners and retirees granted through the National Social Security Administration’s (ANSES) financing programme.
The decision, which appeared this Tuesday in the Official Gazette, will take effect immediately. The government justified the measure because the economic context “makes it difficult to consider the inflationary index for the coming months, as well as the interest rate to be applied in the personal loan market”.
These loans were granted with money from the Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS), run by ANSES, to “contribute to the preservation of the value and profitability” of these resources. However, Milei’s administration is using the questioned Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) to deregulate commerce, services and industry, which now affects the preferential loans granted to retirees and pensioners.
The credit programme was announced in November last year when the economy portfolio was held by former presidential candidate Sergio Massa.
The conditions of access were more flexible than in a bank and allowed people of retirement age from the Argentine Integrated and Pension System (SIPA) to have access to financing of between 250,000 and 600,000 pesos (312 to 750 dollars); with an annual nominal rate (TNA) of 29%, which was very low, representing a third of that offered in the market; and with the possibility of covering the debt in 24, 36 or 48 installments.
The cancellation also affects dependent workers, who will no longer be able to access credits of up to 1,000,000 pesos (USD 1,250) to which they were entitled.
In the “recitals” section, the libertarian government assured that the measure is in line with the DNU because it repeals “all regulations that distort market prices and prevent the interaction of supply and demand spontaneously to correct the crisis facing the Argentine economy and promote its reconstruction”.
The suspension of credits will be in force until 31 December 2025 and will remain in a state of “review”. In the section on considerations, ANSES considered it “desirable” to halt the financing “as a preventive measure to safeguard the fund’s profitability, and to favour its liquidity”.
The resolution also states that the measure could be extended indefinitely, “until the economic variables stabilise and the current financial conditions can be evaluated, as well as any adjustments that may be necessary within the programme”.
