Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina’s planned offer to swap as much as $20 billion of defaulted debt to help it re-enter international credit markets for the first time since 2001 may be delayed until January, Economy Minister Amado Boudou said.

“If all the administrative work is completed, it will be done by the end of the year -- if there is a delay, it could get pushed back to January,” Boudou told reporters today in Buenos Aires.

Details of the offer to holders of bonds that weren’t tendered in a 2005 debt restructuring, which paid investors about 30 cents on the dollar, are still being studied, Boudou told reporters today in Buenos Aires. Boudou said Oct. 22 that a proposal put forward by Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, representing owners of about $10 billion in debt, was “a good base to start discussions.”

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner can move forward on the debt swap after the Senate this week suspended rules that forbid the government from making a new debt offer. The restructuring will bolster investment and economic growth, Boudou said in a speech to lawmakers Oct. 28.

The exchange would involve debt tied to the country’s 2001 default on $95 billion in bonds, the biggest ever. Boudou has said that the offer will be “a little bit” worse than the original swap with holders of defaulted debt.

The extra yield investors demand to own Argentina’s dollar bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries fell to 7.06 percentage points today from 19.6 percentage points on March 25, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Faries in Buenos Aires at wfaries@bloomberg.net; Silvia Martinez in Buenos Aires at smartinez19@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 20, 2009 16:34 EST