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Time to resolve Argentina's long battle with creditors is running out. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Argentina, letting stand a lower court ruling that it must pay off hedge funds that own bonds left over from the country's default in 2001. President Cristina Fernandez has said Argentina couldn't afford to pay them while also making regular interest payments to other lenders.

Argentina is considering making an initial payment to "holdout" creditors before asking to extend negotiations to officially reach a settlement next January to avert a disastrous debt default. The republic has been locked for more than a decade in a fight in U.S. courts with creditors who refuse to accept a 2005 and 2010 revamp of debt securities and demand to be repaid in full.



Argentina's battle with investors who rejected its proposals to restructure debt risks pushing the nation into a new default that would wreck its attempts to return to credit markets but not have the same economic effect as its catastrophic 2001-02 default. The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear Argentina's appeal against lower court rulings that ordered it to pay in full the hedge funds which refused 2005 and 2010 debt swaps on $100 billion in debt.