After the last mission in February, the Monetary Fund will send a senior official to Argentina in the next few days. This is the director of the Western Hemisphere department of the organization, Rodrigo Valdés, who will participate on March 26 and 27 of a corporate event, in the midst of discussions with the government to advance a new agenda and reforms in Congress.
According to sources from the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Valdés will participate in the IEFA LATAM Forum, which will be held at the Four Seasons hotel in Buenos Aires under the banner of “cooperation for a sustainable world”. She will open the forum alongside Lisa Raitt, vice president of global investment banking at Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) and Javier Gimeno, managing director for Latin America at Saint-Gobain.
Both the Fund and the Ministry of Economy assure that there are no scheduled meetings, but from Washington they recognize that the talks “continue frequently” and that “It is common practice for IMF staff to engage with member countries both virtually and in person (such as the last visit of the first deputy director general, Gita Gopinath, in February).”
Valdés took up his role in May last year after being appointed by the Fund’s head, Kristalina Georgieva, to replace Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, who resigned as president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The role of the former Chilean minister is fundamental for the region and for Argentina because he is who oversees the program with our country.
The official will arrive in Buenos Aires amid the government’s efforts to push forward a stabilization plan expand the loan by 44,000 million dollars obtained by Mauricio Macri in 2018, which Argentina continues to pay, and modify the program signed by Alberto Fernández in March 2022 to allow for the possibility of new funds.
President Javier Milei assured on Friday that the possibility of a new agreement “is on the table” and that “it could include disbursements from the Fund, other countries and investment funds which would also allow us to move towards the system of competition currency”. with weight.” And yesterday he reiterated it in a report in La Nación +: “If I had today 15 billion dollars, today I open the shares”.
“Our objective remains to support policies aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability in Argentina, while protecting the most vulnerable. It is still premature to discuss the precise modalities of the program”, they say in the IMF, and to clarify the ongoing dialogue “not means that a formal mission has been established for a review. Next It will be in May.
The government has begun to explore the path of a new agreement amid difficulties in carrying out reforms promised to the organization to strengthen fiscal adjustment and deregulate the economy with the support of Congress. The Senate rejection last Friday the treatment given to the DNU was changed and, although it is still in force, the ruling party now finds itself exposed to a change from the deputies.
The parliamentary setback, in turn, added new doubts on the future of the new Bases Law that freedom advances asks to address it in April after the sensational failure in the extraordinary sessions. The projects include the delegation of extraordinary powers, the privatization of companies and a new pension formula, along with the refund of income tax.
To avoid a negative market reaction, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced on Friday that in February the primary fiscal and financial surplus, so the “zero deficit” is maintained. But Milei needs both the laws and the DNU to dispel doubts about the “sustainability” of the plan at the Fund, the White House and Wall Street.
On Friday Caputo received the emissary of the United States Treasury, Brent Nieman, to resume the conversation on the agreement with the IMF and on the progress of the reforms. Treasury chief Janet Yellen is the Fund’s largest shareholder. And both she and Gopinath insist that the government should strengthen some social and pension plans, raise revenues and adjust benefits.
Argentina concluded its latest review on January 31 and received a disbursement of $4.7 billion. Since then, the Central Bank purchased reserves for 10,000 million dollars for the quota available to pay for imports, but needs more dollars to open the shares. And the decline in inflation due to the sharp recession and the liquefaction of the peso raises doubts about fiscal adjustment.
Source: Clarin
