MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF confirms normal relationship with Argentina “in the near future”

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn: friends again

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is confident that the fund will resume a “normal” relationship with Argentina soon, he said on Friday.

Strauss-Kahn told a news conference that he had recently talked to Argentina's finance minister and president (Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner) about resuming links with the country and “I think we are making a step forward.”

“My hope is that in the near future we will be able to resume a normal relationship with Argentina,” he said.

Argentina ended a standby agreement with the fund in 2005 and the fund has not carried out a review of the economy since 2006.

But such a IMF review is seen as a key step to Argentina restructuring 6.7 billion US dollars in defaulted debt to the Paris Club of creditor nations.

Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou was quoted by Reuters saying that Argentina is seeking such a review now, known as an Article IV review, but not any kind of lending plan from the IMF.