MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina warming up to resume dialogue and links with IMF

Minister Amado Boudou is scheduled to meet with a high ranking IMF official

Argentina's Economy Minister Amado Boudou has opened the door to re-establishing links with the International Monetary Fund, as he seeks to restore Argentina's access to international credit markets.

“We are heading towards a meeting point with the IMF, although we won't discuss the government's economic policy” Boudou said, quoted on Thursday by the La Nacion newspaper. Argentina virtually cut relations with the IMF over two years ago.

The announcement had a positive echo from Washington where IMF officials said that “naturally we are interested in a more intense dialogue with Argentina. We are working with all country members in the context of the global crisis”.

“Obviously there are high expectations” by the fact that for the first time the IMF Director of the Western Hemisphere will be officially talking with Argentina’s Economy minister, said sources in Buenos Aires.

“We hold technical discussions” with IMF staff quite normally and frequently, but so far it has not included any formal request for loans or support, or “for that matter, advances in the regular statistical reviews undertaken by the IMF in all country members

Boudou spoke to reporters on a trip back from Brazil. From the comments, it's still unclear whether the Argentine government will allow the IMF to conduct an Article IV assessment of the Argentine economy, as it does regularly with most of IMF members. In part, that's problematic due to questions about the validity of inflation and growth data from the national statistics institute, or Indec.