MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF insists Argentina agrees with creditors.

The International Monetary Fund new Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said that the accomplishment of an agreement with all creditors is one of the “very important” steps the Argentine authorities have to complete to leave behind the economic crisis and have Argentina completely integrated into international financial markets.

Speaking in his first press conference as IMF Managing Director Mr. Rato recalled that precisely for that reason the question of debt negotiations with all Argentine creditors was included in the IMF-Argentina program and the provision that "those negotiations will be sustained in good faith".

"We recognize clearly that the evolution of the Argentine economy has been better than expected, that the management of the monetary policy and the fiscal policy has been good, but we also see that to achieve progress in certain areas we have to keep working at it. To mention a few, a fiscal agreements with the provinces, the closing of an agreement with all creditors, the strengthening of the financial system, and finally designing a legal and administrative environment that will be helpful for private investment", highlighted Mr. Rato.

"I have spoken with Mr. Roberto Lavagna about it, that the work of the Argentine Government moves in that direction, and we are very much interested that those negotiations are completed so that step for the normalization of the Argentine situation can become a fact".

Insisting that an agreement with "all creditors is very important", Mr. Rato said he was confident in Argentine authorities to reach an agreement since "it's one of the key issues to leave the crisis behind and so allow the Argentinean society to have full access to international capital markets. We follow closely negotiations between Argentine authorities and creditors", however the IMF will make no comments about specifics of those negotiations.

As to world economic prospects and the challenges of oil prices and a rise in United States interest rates as anticipated by Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, Mr. Rato indicated that "as we have expressed in our review of the American economy, we don't see signs of risk of inflation. And I think that that appreciation is shared by most institutions, including certainly the Federal Reserve. So we think that (US) monetary policy will follow the path the US authorities have already expressed".

Regarding oil Mr. Rato revealed that the IMF world economy assessment is under review, "but I can tell you that we don't see a downward risk right now. So although it's true that the price of oil that we are predicting today will be in the realm of $5 higher than we anticipated a few months ago, the evolution of the world economy in some areas and the demand in the world economy will more than compensate that effect. So we are looking at a clear recovery of the world economy and the IMF forecast of a 4,6% growth is not at risk of being reviewed downwards".