MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina and the IMF ready to re-establish normal working technical relations

IMF director Dominique Strauss Khan met Central Bank president Martin Redrado

International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Dominique Strauss Khan, told Argentine Central Bank head Martín Redrado that the eventual revision of Argentina's economy by the multilateral organization would be “strictly technical,” according to IMF sources.

Redrado met Monday with Strauss Kahn at the Istambul Convention Center, in the midst of the Annual IMF and World Bank Assembly, which is celebrated in the Turkish city.

During the meeting, Strauss Kahn and Redrado analyzed the relations between Argentina and the IMF, “in particular the possibility of Argentina coming through on the previously arranged statute articles of the organization,” said sources.

In that sense, the IMF head said that “the revision would be strictly technical, and it should not be politicized,” adding that “it would be focalized on establishing the macroeconomic situation in the country and in studying the solidity of its variables and implemented instruments”.

Strauss Kahn will meet Tuesday with Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou, with whom he will be able to advance on defining the conditions necessary to speed up that revision, a fundamental step in returning Argentina to international credit markets.

Also during the meeting, Redrado spoke to Strauss Kahn about the diverse implemented measures from the BCRA in terms of economic politics, with the goal of confronting the international financial situation.

According to sources, the IMF director “valued the strategy that Argentina is moving forward on to confront the global crisis” in the country. Redrado also spoke about certain things that were mentioned at the G-20 meeting in London, particularly strategies such as insurance costs and how to tackle related issues.

A former Argentine Central Bank president and advisor to the Bank of England, Mario Blejer confirmed that multilateral credit organizations have significantly improved their “opinion” about Argentina.

“It’s something that didn’t happen for a long time”, said Blejer who is also at the IMF meeting in Istanbul. He pointed out that IMF officials “are not talking of any program or recipe, simply of the normal monitoring to which all IMF member economies are exposed; no way is it an audit”.

He added that Tuesday’s meeting between the IMF chief and Argentine Ministry of Finance Amado Boudou could reach an agreement since there is “good will from both sides”.

He added that the financial markets perception is that things are changing “for good in Argentina”, concluded Blejer.

The Argentine position under the Kirchner couple has been that the IMF was the root and cause of most of Argentina’s economic evils. However lately and starved of fresh money, the Kirchners have said that relations with IMF could return to normal but on an equals basis. “Argentina is a sovereign state and will not have its accounts audited by an international organization”.