MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF reviews role in Argentine crisis.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, considered today a report from the Independent Evaluation Office which elaborates on the alleged multilateral credit organization's degree of responsibility in the recent Argentine financial crisis.

Although the report still remains secret sources linked to the investigation revealed it's not precisely favorable for the IMF and points to a certain degree of co-responsibility in the melting of the Argentine financial system and economy.

Managing Director Rodrigo Rato, Anne Krueger as well as the 24 Executive Board directors of the IMF participated in the meeting together with Montek Ahluwalia, an economist from the World Bank who headed the Independent Evaluation Office final report.

The investigation was started following a claim filed by a former Director of the Argentine Central Bank, Juan Jose Guaresti in November 2002.

In June 2003, Shinji Takagi from the Independent Evaluation Office visited Argentina and interviewed government officials and economists to collect information and data relating to the nineties.

A further fact collecting mission took place in December 2003, before the drafting of the final report was began.

Apparently the delegations did not meet or interview officials from the current President Kirchner administration or his antecessor in the job former president Eduardo Duhalde since the purpose of the report was the "convertibility" period extending from 1991 to 2001 when one peso was artificially fixed as equivalent to one US dollar.

The Independent Evaluation Office has previously written other reports, one on the fiscal packages recommended by the IMF to country members; the prolonged access to IMF funds and a third on how the IMF managed the capital crisis in Brazil, South Korea and Indonesia.

The report on Argentina is expected to be released in the coming weeks.