The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, called on Sunday to “remain vigilant” in the face of “uncertainty” in the financial sector, which remains “high”.
The bankruptcy of California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 sparked a wave of concern in the banking sector in the United States and Europe, which included among its milestones the hasty sale of Swiss entity Credit Suisse to its compatriot UBS a few days ago week, or Deutsche Bank’s stock market losses.
“It is clear that risks to financial stability have increased,” Kristalina Georgieva said at a forum on China’s development, an event organized by the Chinese government in Beijing.
And it is that the purchase of Credit Suisse by UBS, piloted by the Swiss authorities, as well as the recent measures by central banks to improve access to liquidity, have avoided panic but have failed to restore calm to the financial markets .
“Political leaders have taken decisive measures in response to the risks weighing on financial stability,” the IMF managing director assessed in his speech.
“These measures have somewhat eased tensions in the markets, but uncertainty remains high, which underscores the need to remain vigilant,” he said.
Meanwhile, the agency’s board will deal “very soon” with the Argentine case to approve the agreed $5.3 billion following the approval of the technical personnel review, which took place last week, and according to compliance with the schedule between the organization and Argentina.
“We hope that the board meeting will take place very soon, in line with the regular cycle of the first quarter program objectives” of 2023, Julie Kozack said this morning, in her first news conference as an IMF spokesperson.
Kozack was until the end of last year the Fund’s head of mission in the Argentine case.
The spokesman explained that “typically there is a period of time” that the board of directors takes from approving the technical review, which in the Argentine case was last March 13, where the review of reserve targets was also agreed for the period 2023.
On 13 March, the Government and the IMF’s technical staff reached agreement on the fourth revision under the Extended Structures Agreement, which is now subject to approval by the Executive Board of the multilateral organisation.
Once the review is complete, Argentina will have access to about US$5.3 billion (about SDR 4 billion, the currency of the IMF).
“In a more challenging economic environment, especially the increasingly severe drought, stronger policy actions are needed to safeguard stability, address rising inflation and policy setbacks, as well as maintain program anchor “, Kozack summarized, without further details, pending the ruling of the agency’s board of directors.
Source: Clarin
