An agreement among Greece's international creditors on reducing its large debt pile should be rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking, the head of the International Monetary Fund said ahead of a tense meeting with European leaders.
The International Monetary Fund ratified on Thursday that “on December 17” it will assess the “quality of Argentine statistics, particularly those referred to inflation”, an issue over which it had already warned the administration of President Cristina Fernandez.
Mexican economist Alejandro Werner was named on Tuesday to the position of IMF Director, Western Hemisphere Department. His appointment will become effective early in January 2013. Mr. Werner succeeds Mr. Nicolas Eyzáguirre, who resigned effective July 26, 2012.
The world's leading economies gave themselves a bit more space on Monday to meet targets for cutting budget deficits rather than risk worsening a slowdown in many countries, chief among them the United States.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the central bank's measures to bolster the US economy. Brazil has said US monetary easing to keep interest rates low and weaken the dollar has hurt emerging economies. And IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned on Sunday of consequent asset bubbles developing in emerging nations.
The IMF on Thursday backed giving debt-burdened Greece and Spain more time to reduce their budget deficits, cautioning that cutting too far, too fast would do more harm than good.
Standard & Poor's cut Spain's sovereign credit rating to BBB-minus, just above junk territory, citing a deepening economic recession that is limiting the government's policy options to arrest the slide.
Argentina will grow 2.6% in 2012 according to the IMF latest World Economic Outlook, which is below the 3.4% estimated by President Cristina Fernandez administration for this year’s budget.
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez hit back at the IMF on Tuesday for warning her country about bad stats data, saying her nation is sovereign and would not be subjected to threats of any kind.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned Argentina on Monday that the multilateral lender is willing to show it a red card if by December the government of Cristina Fernández does not meet its promises of providing reliable inflation and GDP statistics, during a conference at the Peterson Institute in Washington DC.