New President Fernandez tells IMF Argentina ‘wants to pay debt but can’t’

Argentina’s new President Alberto Fernandez on Tuesday called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to build a “constructive and cooperative” relationship to help the crisis-wracked South American country repay its debts.

During his inauguration speech in Buenos Aires, Fernandez said that Argentina “wants to pay” its external debt, which is around 100 percent of gross domestic product, but that it doesn’t have “the means to do so.”

The center-leftist leader blasted the outgoing, market-friendly president, Mauricio Macri, for having “left the nation in a situation of virtual default” with an external debt of $315 billion, AFP reports.