Argentina finally took the plunge yesterday and came to the international market with its long-awaited $1bn 20-year bond issue, reports the Financial times.

This is the country's third deal already in 2000, but its first visit to the dollar market. Book-runners JP Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney had orginally planned for a 10-year issue, but after a glut of such deals hit the market last week, they opted for a longer maturity.