Roughly 5.8 million Argentines are more than 90 days behind on debt payments, the highest household delinquency rate in 20 years, according to Central Bank data. About half of that overdue debt is already classified as uncollectible.
The household credit irregularity rate rose from 4.5% in May 2025 to roughly 12.9% by mid-2026, nearly tripling in a little over a year, with delinquency worsening at 23 of Argentina’s 30 largest banks in July alone. The overall private-sector default rate, which includes businesses, stood at 7.73% in the most recent reading, up from 7.63% the prior month, while business delinquency alone rose to 3.61%.
More than 70% of the overdue debt is in personal loans and credit cards, the short-term, high-interest borrowing households increasingly use to cover everyday expenses. Some digital-wallet lenders have been charging annual rates approaching 1,000%, and informal lenders around 260%, according to the Centro de Economía Política. Around 21 million Argentines, roughly 46% of the population, carry some form of debt.
For the people involved, falling behind by 90 days has concrete consequences. Once a borrower is reported to the Central Bank’s public credit registry, which banks, phone companies, landlords and retailers routinely check before extending credit, it typically becomes far harder to get a loan, finance a purchase in installments, sign a rental lease or even open a basic bank account. It can feed on itself: a missed credit card payment today makes it harder to borrow to cover next month’s expenses.
IMF communications director Julie Kozack addressed the trend directly, telling reporters that “we are monitoring the recent increase in household delinquency rates” but that “we don’t consider this to represent a significant risk to financial stability in Argentina.” The Fund’s reasoning rests on three points: household debt is low relative to the size of the economy, at about 8% of GDP and below most regional peers; Argentine banks are well capitalized and liquid; and loan-loss provisions already cover more than 85% of non-performing household debt.
The credit boom behind the delinquency numbers was in part a deliberate feature of the government’s strategy. Milei’s administration has pushed to expand access to consumer credit as part of its reactivation push, betting that easier borrowing would help offset years of contracting real incomes and stimulate consumption without a return to fiscal deficits.
Economists point to the delinquency data as one of the clearest signs that Argentina’s disinflation, while real, has not yet been matched by a recovery in take-home pay. Real wages fell sharply during the harshest years of Milei’s stabilization program, and a household that borrowed to get through 2024 and 2025 is now repaying that debt out of a lower starting income, at real interest rates that remain high by historical standards. INDEC, the national statistics agency, reported this same week that consumer prices rose just 1.7% in August, the slowest pace in 14 months.
The IMF’s third review mission for Argentina’s program arrives the week of September 21.