How not to Face Debt Traps in Dependent Economies: Argentina’s Recent Experience in Hindsight

Recent debate on debt sustainability in Argentina has put forth the need to establish new parameters into the international credit institutions’ debt sustainability assessments. The article provides a situated critic of standard assessments while delving into the core of the debt sustainability discussion. It also provides a clearer understanding of how to make visible some key assumptions at the core of the debt sustainability models, showing how to include the social and political conflict and human rights limitations into the framework for debt repayment strategies in dependent economies. Lastly, it presents a synthetic reflection on how we can build a better, more realistic framework to assess debt sustainability, especially in countries that have consistently shown difficulties to comply (i.e., Argentina).