On his first day in Washington, Economy Minister Sergio Massa focused not so much on the meetings of the spring assembly of the International Monetary Fund, but rather in strengthening reserves in the red while the dollar overheated on Thursday: blue closed at $400, so the minister signed in parallel an agreement with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund for 500 million dollars for this year and an outlay of US$200 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The minister’s idea is to “scratch the plate where possible” to catch up this year about 3,000 million dollars from international credit organizations such as BID, CAF and World Bank, and other sources of financing, in order to close the reserve target set by the program with the Fund, severely compromised by the drought. In the latest program review, the agency relaxed its reserve target of $1.8 billion at the end of the year, but it’s still not enough.
An injection of fresh money will come from Saudi Arabia this year. In the afternoon, Massa met with Sultan Abdulrahman Al Marashed, managing director of the Saudi Fund for Development, at the IMF, and signed a $500 million loan deal to finance infrastructure projects for healthy food, electric transmissions and energy, including funds for the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline. According to what they say from Economy, it is obtained at lower rates than with multilateral organizations.
The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has been working for almost 50 years to support projects in developing countries so that the population has access to basic services, according to the Arab press.
Previously, the IDB announced the approval of a loan of 200 million dollars to improve the Argentine health system, an initial single transaction of a $600 million conditional credit facility for capital projects. This loan aims to reduce premature mortality and increase access to diagnostic services and medical care.
Although the announced loans have specific destinations and are not freely available to strengthen reserves, they enter central coffers in dollars so that projects can then be executed in pesos. how are dollars they are used by the government to add them as reserves and then account for them to meet the IMF target.
The government is trying to overcome this difficult situation and wants the United States to help it “build the bridge to reach next year”, a request that President Alberto Fernández made to the head of the White House, Joe Biden, at the summit they held a month ago.
The meeting held by the minister was in this sense Wendy Sherman, the US deputy secretary of state, Wednesday evening in Santo Domingo, before the official’s arrival in Buenos Aires. “Sherman is delegated by President Biden to work on building a common agenda with Argentina,” Massa told IMF reporters.
“That agenda has strategic issues for the region and some related not only to the short term but to the long term, such as the issue of critical minerals, proteins, energy security, Vaca Muerta. See also on the basis of what we are working on at the level of short-term multilateral agreements, see how the United States government gives its contribution, its collaboration”. The world’s leading economic power is the main and most influential contributor to all multilaterals.
When asked how Washington would specifically help Argentina, Massa remained cautious: “The commitment we have made to the United States is to work confidentially and professionally – and not through the media – on the issues we have on a common agenda”.
To support this strategy, Massa will meet this Friday with Biden officials such as Michael Pile, deputy director of the White House National Security Council, and with John González, special adviser to the president. In the afternoon he will have another important meeting with Gita Gopinath, number two of the IMF, with whom they will certainly discuss the numbers of the fifth revision of the programme, which is already underway.
Massa’s program, which will last until Saturday, includes meetings with Mathias Cormann, s.Secretary General of the OECD, with Jose Antonio Ocampo, Finance Minister of Colombia, and with the President of the IDB, Ilan Goldfajn.
Source: Clarin
