MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF expects “progress” in discussions with Argentina.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, expects a significant advance in discussions to complete the third review of the program with Argentina, said IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato during a forum in Paris.

"I expect substantial progress this week" said Mr. Rato when asked about the third review of the 13 billion US dollar program with Argentina.

Argentina is currently holding negotiations with private holders of defaulted bonds dating to December 2001, and the country must negotiate in "good faith" with its creditors if the IMF program is to hold. The third review proceedings officially begin this week in Buenos Aires.

"Restructuring of the debt is very important", given its relevance to reestablish confidence in markets but there are also other points the IMF wishes to examine.

Among those points Mr. Rato pointed out to several reforms which are underway, or should be, and "we're evaluating these commitments".

Mr. Rato recalled that last week an IMF mission visited Argentina and worked "very cordially" with local officials, and "we're now waiting for the technical mission to complete an overall assessment of the situation and the program".

Once the third review is approved Argentina will have access to further IMF resources and from the World Bank that recently approved a 700 million US dollars loan for restructuring the Argentine financial system and road building, but linked to the outcome of the review.

Mr. Rato also talked about the recent decisions by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank regarding interest rates.

"IMF shares the opinion of those responsible for monetary policy in United States and in Europe regarding the need to be alert about inflationary pressures; it's particularly important that the secondary effects of the increase in oil prices of recent months remain moderate, specially regarding salaries", said Mr. Rato.