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Strong recovery of Argentine industry; Argentina implements another IMF condition; IMF forecasts stronger world economy

Strong recovery of Argentine industry

Argentine industry expanded last February 13,3% compared to the same month in 2003, according to the national Statistics Institute. This represents 0,9% growth over January 2004, accumulating in the first two months a 13,1% expansion. Analyzing the two months and compared to a year ago the most dynamic sectors have been printing 46,6%; car manufacturing 46,3%; and agro-chemical products 32,4%. The use of industrial capacity in February reached 67,6%, compared to 61,1% twelve months ago. Sectors making most use of capacity in February were metal and paper industries and oil refining.

Argentina implements another IMF condition

Argentine president Nestor Kirchner signed this Tuesday the decree making official the syndicate of banks that will help with the restructuring of the country's debt, one of the points demanded by the IMF. According to the Ministry of Economy spokesman Armando Torres the decree becomes official with its publication tomorrow Wednesday in the Official Gazette. The foreign banks that will be involved in negotiations with creditors from North America, the Caribbean and Europe are Barclays Capital, UBS International Bank and Merrill Lynch. Local bondholders will discuss with Banco Nación, Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires and Banco Francés, an affiliate of the Spanish Bilbao Vizcaya bank. The syndicate will have to convince the holders of 88 billion US dollars in defaulted sovereign bonds to accept the Argentine proposal of a 75% face value cut. Mr. Torres added that the decree authorizes the Ministry of Economy "to replace, if conditions justify", any of the members of the bank syndicate. The banks involved will be entitled to a commission of 200 million US dollars, and together with the Economy Ministry will decide which banks eventually will float new bonds.

IMF forecasts stronger world economy

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, next April will increase the world's growth estimate for 2004 from 4% to 4,6%, according to the German newspaper Handelsblatt. IMF estimates that United States, Germany, Japan and Great Britain economies will expand faster than originally expected and anticipated in its last October 2003 report. United States will expand an additional 0,7 reaching 4,7%; Germany 1,7% instead of 1,5% and in 2005 growth should reach 2,1% Japan this year is expected to expand 3,2%, far above the original 1,4%, while Britain should manage 3,1%, over half a point more than IMF forecasted last October.