Massa’s team will travel to Washington on Sunday to negotiate with the IMF

Sergio Massa’s economic team will travel to Washington on Sunday to advance face-to-face in the negotiations it has already started with the IMF. It will be the first face-to-face meeting with the organization’s staff to negotiate the outlay of approximately $ 4,000 million in September, linked to the achievement of the second quarter goals, and to present the plan on which they will work within the Ministry of ‘Economy under strict hermeticism

Meanwhile, the Fund has not yet confirmed when they will receive the Argentine mission.

The Palacio de Hacienda focuses on three axes: renewing forthcoming disbursements in the face of growing difficulties in approving ongoing audits, unlocking funding from multilateral organizations and demonstrating that the Central Bank has the capacity to accumulate reserves. This last chapter is essential not only to dispel doubts about the continuity of the program, but also to allay the pressures for devaluation.

The delegation will be made up of portfolio secretaries Leonardo Madcur (in charge of the directors), Raul Rigo (Treasury), Gabriel Rubinstein (Economic policy), Eduardo Setti (Finance), Lisandro Cleri (Central Bank) and Marco Lavagna (Indec). Although most officials have already held virtual conversations with staff, Madcur is the one who drives them with up to three zooms per day.

The goal of the Argentine mission is to advance the technical work before the mass landing in Washington which will begin next Tuesday as part of a tour in which seeks to close investments, finance and consolidate ties with the White House. In his busy schedule, the minister will travel to Houston on Friday 9th and on September 12th he will have his first meeting with the head of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva.

The team believes the targets for the second quarter will be approved, after the IMF eased the requirements for that period due to the impact of the external shock caused by the war in Ukraine. On the other hand, it will be much more complicated in the third and fourth quarters, as the organism has tightened the conditions to achieve the annual goals. Thus, although Massa has reduced spending, a real decline of 7.8% of GDP is expected in Washington in the second half of the year.

In parallel, Massa and his technicians are negotiating with multilateral organizations to release disbursements of $ 2 billion and a loan (REPO) for another $ 2 billion with more than three international banks to buy back debt and strengthen reserves. In this context, the minister will meet the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Maurizio Claver Carone, the Director General of the World Bank, Axel van Trotsenburg.

He also expects to meet Treasury Secretary Janette Yellen, the IMF’s largest shareholder, or her advisors. For now, a meeting has been confirmed with the authorities of the North American organization to advance an agreement for the exchange of tax information and with Juan González, Joe Biden’s adviser for Latin America on the National Security Council, with whom Massa entertains a good dialogue.

In search of investments and dollars, Massa will also hold meetings with oil companies Chevron, Exxon, Shell and Total, Volkswagen automaker, Rio Tinto and Li vent (Lithium) mining companies, Amazon groupand US companies that currently have productive investments in Argentina at a meeting coordinated by the US Chamber of Commerce.

The work agenda is coordinated by his international adviser, diplomat Gustavo Martínez Pandiani, together with Ambassador Jorge Argüello.