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Minister of Economy of Argentina gives a press conference
BUENOS AIRES, March 27 (Archyde.com) -Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán said on Sunday that the recent agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restructure some 44,000 million dollars might require adapting economic policies of the third largest economy from Latin America.
The official stated in interviews with local media that the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the expectations of the global economy in the face of strong increases in raw materials.
“In the last weeks of the negotiation and anticipating the development of the international situation, an attempt was made to more deeply articulate a language that would take into account that contingencies might arise that would require adaptation of economic policies,” Guzmán told the morning newspaper La Nation.
The IMF approved the credit program on Friday following more than a year of negotiations, which provides for a reduction in the fiscal deficit, an increase in interest rates and a cut in energy subsidies, among other points.
“In the world we are living in, the levels of global uncertainty are high and, therefore, contingencies are appearing,” he told the morning paper Clarín.
The invasion of Ukraine, which began at the end of February, determined economic sanctions once morest Russia that triggered food and energy prices, which will lead to greater global inflationary pressure, according to analysts.
Argentina “has a lot of problems, not only with the Monetary Fund, but with the agreement we have managed to get rid of a problem that is the anguish of paying (for refinancing),” President Alberto Fernández said in an interview on public television.
For the country “it is a good moment in a bad (global) moment full of difficulties,” he said, noting that “we do not know how far the effects of the war reach (and…) recalibrating may not be negative, it is something realistic And we have to be careful.”
The understanding reached by the country with the credit institution includes quarterly reviews, the first being in May, IMF officials said on Friday.
(Reporting by Walter Bianchi)
