2024-01-11 00:16:18
Argentina will have 3,500 special drawing rights (SDR), equivalent to about 4,650 million dollars, to pay debt maturities, tto reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within the framework of the seventh review of the extended facilities program signed with the entity in 2022.
As reported this Wednesday by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, in a press conference, this is not “a new agreement”, but that the Executive of Javier Milei tried to “refloat” the existing one because the other “would have involved much more time.” ”.
The Argentine Government and the IMF technical team, with which local authorities have held meetings in recent days, This Wednesday they reached a staff level agreement, which must be approved by the Executive Board.
According to a joint statement, the IMF team, made up of the deputy director of the Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department, Luis Cubeddu; the head of the mission in Argentina, Ashvin Ahuja; and the IMF representative in the country, Ben Kelmanson, estimated that the Milei Government acted “quickly and decisively to develop and implement a solid policy package with the objective of restoring macroeconomic stability” in the face of the “serious deviation” of the program, alluding to the previous Administration.
“The primary fiscal deficit and internal debt goals for the end of September were not met, and “Preliminary data suggests that year-end goals were missed by an even greater margin.”added the text.
Caputo, who appeared at the press conference with the president of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), Santiago Bausili, highlighted that the IMF staff will send the recommendation “with the new goals” at the end of January, which , subject to management approval, will allow the disbursement of nearly $4.7 billion.
“This disbursement is not new money, it is the money to pay the capital maturities that occurred in December – when we had to ask the CAF –, January and April. These three maturities add up to approximately that amount,” explained the head of the Treasury Palace.
To that, he added, Argentina must add 600 million dollars in interest in February.
This agreement reached concludes the seventh review of the extended facilities program signed with the entity in March 2022 to refinance the debt contracted in 2018 during the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
The eighth will take place in May, confirmed the Minister of Economy.
Caputo asserted that the program “does not include taking on new debt,” since, he reiterated, “the debt that is taken on is only due to the fact that the country spends more than it collects.”
A team close to Milei already met with IMF representatives when he traveled to Washington on November 28, after his election as president, but it was during the transition period and the leader of La Libertad Avanza did not participate in that meeting.
On this occasion, it has not emerged that the president participated.
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