MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina confident about IMF review

Argentina is confident that the first review of the recent financial assistance agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, will be approved.

"There are no issues pending, no non fulfilments and we believe the review will be blessed", said an Argentine source from the Ministry of Economy. Two months ago, Argentina and the IMF managed a last minute 12,5 billion US dollars reschedule agreement which is extensive to other multilateral organizations such as the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank, totalling over 21 billion US dollars.

The IMF delegation is headed by John Thornton and includes the IMF resident in Argentina John Dodsworth. This week they had several rounds of talks with Finance Secretary Guillermo Nielsen and sometime before next Wednesday when they leave for Washington, they will be meeting with Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna.

According to Argentine press reports Mr. Lavagna is confident no major problems will emerge since the October primary fiscal surplus has been above the annualized target of 2,7 billion US dollars. At this rate November and December will be two full months in excess of the original objective.

However Argentina still has to reach an agreement with sovereign bond holders totalling 81 billion US dollars. Argentine authorities have offered a rescheduling program that includes a write off of up to 75% of the bonds face value which has been flatly rejected by the main holders.