For the IMF, the economic situation in Argentina is “very worrying”

“The situation in Argentina is very worrying”. The reflection was made by the economist of the International Monetary Fund, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, at the press conference after the presentation of the latest world projections. “The most important issue in Argentina at the moment is unanchored inflation”He added.

His words were heard after the presentation of the World Economic Outlook (WEO), in which he kept the growth projections for Argentina unchanged compared to his last report last April: 4% in 2022 and 3% for the 2023. At the same time it lowered global projections due to the consequences of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Gourinchas’ projections and words came the day after the meeting between IMF director Kristalina Georgieva and Economy Minister Silvina Batakis, who on Tuesday concludes her visit to Washington with meetings with investors and businessmen of high level such as General Motors, Amazon and Google.

The IMF chief economist also spoke of the inflationary escalation: “I think the figure is over 60% and expectations could continue to grow in the rest of the year “. And in this sense, he assured that” Argentina’s first priority must be to bring inflation back into a more stable context.

“The question under discussion now is whether the current policy mix is ​​sufficient,” he stressed. And I add: “It remains to be seen whether the policies implemented so far will succeed in achieving this goal., we will see. This is certainly the problem that must be faced head on. “

Projections for the rest of the world

Growth projections for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022 will be 3%, an upward revision of 0.5%, but they lowered them to 2% in 2023 (half a point below the previous ratio).

Furthermore, the report also highlights that, despite high inflation, it is one of the few regions that is resisting the impacts of the war in Ukraine.

According to new IMF projections, the world economy will slow from 6.1% last year to 3.2% in 2022, which is 0.4 percentage points less than the organization’s latest “Global Outlook” report. multilateral in April.

The report, which describes the global situation as “grim”, highlights that world production “contracted in the second quarter of this year, due to recessions in China and Russia”.

“Several shocks have hit a world economy already weakened by the pandemic: higher than expected inflation worldwide, especially in the United States and in the main European economies, which has led to more restrictive financial conditions; a worse-than-expected slowdown in China, reflecting the epidemics and blockades of Covid-19; and other negative side effects of the war in Ukraine, “the report said.

Among the most important downward revisions are those of the United States with a reduction of 1.4 percentage points and 1.1 points in China, countries where growth of 2.3% and 3.3% respectively is now expected. .

YN