Argentina in Search of an Agreement on Maturities in the Meeting with the IMF
The Government of Argentina, chaired by the ultra-liberal economist Javier Milei, seeks to reach a new understanding with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the meeting it will hold today in Buenos Aires with a delegation of the multilateral organization, according to government sources told EFE.
“The idea is to lift the agreement that is fallen and reach a ‘staff level agreement‘” about the expirations, these same sources assured, on the day before the celebration of this meeting, the first held directly by representatives of the Government. . of Milei and the IMF.
Government and IMF Representatives Present
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Nicolás Posse, will attend on behalf of the Argentine Government.
Meanwhile, the IMF will be represented by the director of its Western Hemisphere Department, the Chilean Rodrigo Valdés, and the deputy director of the Fund’s department in charge of Latin America, Luis Cubeddu, official sources informed EFE. In addition, the presence of the head of the IMF mission in Argentina, Ashvin Ahuja, is confirmed.
“Based on previous agreements (between Argentina and the IMF), we should not have any differences with the Fund. We have an obvious plan on fiscal matters (…), we are moving towards a plan to stabilize this ‘horror’,” The presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, detailed today in a press conference.
The objective of the Argentine Executive in tomorrow’s meeting is to renegotiate the agreement between the two parties to pay a debt that amounts to about 46,000 million dollars.
A team close to Milei already met with representatives of the IMF when he traveled to Washington on November 28 after he was elected president, during the transition period. However, the leader of La Libertad Avanza did not participate in that meeting.
Postponement of Due Dates and Measures Considered
Buenos Aires hopes to postpone the first maturities of this year, which are due on January 9 and amount to 1.3 billion dollars, and on the 16th of this month, for 650 million dollars more.
One of the measures, already planned by the international organization, is for Argentina to unify payments, but this is only possible if there is more than one maturity in the same period, something that was done in June, July, and October of last year, during the Government of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
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During the transition between the Fernández and Milei Administrations, Argentina owed a short-term loan from the CAF Development Bank of Latin America for 960 million dollars to pay the December 21 maturities.
For now, the IMF has supported the measures of the new Argentine Executive that aim at fiscal adjustment, cutting public spending, and curbing monetary issuance.
