MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hot News: Mercosur supports floating peso.

Argentina's Mercosur partners and associate members gave their support to the “institutional solution to the Argentine crisis”, and expressed their confidence that both Argentine authorities and the people “will achieve the recovery of economic growth and social development”.

The official statement followed a meeting in Buenos Aires of Foreign Affairs Ministers from Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile and Bolivia, in anticipation of a regional summit to he held at the end of the month in support of president Eduardo Duhalde's administration. Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Carlos Ruckauf insisted in including in the statement a clause underlining that "Mercosur is a state policy of maximum priority", and that authorities are committed to "revitalize" the integration process in all its aspects. Ministers also declared their commitment to abide Mercosur agreements, stressed the importance of coordinating macroeconomic policies for the regional economic and financial stability and to ensure access to markets "overcoming the restrictive measures imposed as a consequence of the block's situation". Presidents from Brazil, Fernando Cardoso and Uruguay Jorge Batlle, have openly supported Argentina's new policies indicating that the floating peso, will help macroeconomic coordination in the region, and open the way for a single Mercosur currency, once the area is financially stabilized. Contrary to what happened under former Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo, the Duhalde administration has expressed its full commitment to Mercosur, to the block's common external tariff, and buried all the anti-Brazil campaign.

IMF mission in Argentina

An International Monetary Fund, IMF, delegation, described as technical, is currently in Buenos Aires to review the situation of the Argentine financial system that has been under strict restrictions following a forced freeze of deposits to avoid a massive bank run. "The experts will analyse the structure of the financial system and the macroeconomic scenario for this year, which are essential for the elaboration of an economic program", indicated Argentina's Economy Under Secretary Jorge Todesca. This is the first of several IMF delegations: the following next week, will audit the country's finances, and another at the end of January working on the budget draft for 2002, will then decide if Argentina is ready to receive financial assistance from the multilateral organization. The IMF and the current Argentine administra