MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina discussing details of IMF technical mission visit to the country

Argentine Minister Boudou, the new link with IMF

Following his forty minutes Tuesday meeting with IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou said that ”the new relationship (Argentina is) building with the IMF is purely technical and numbers-related, but by no means does it mean an interference with Argentine policy.”

Boudou denied an agreement had been reached with Strauss-Kahn's IMF. “We are discussing with the Fund as Argentina is a member of an international organization,” he said during an interview with local reporters after landing in Argentina, back from Istanbul.

The Economy Minister however admitted that he did discuss a revision of article IV of the IMF charter in the meeting he held with the Fund's Managing Director. Boudou is trying to reach a deal involving only information exchange with the IMF, and no monitoring.

“The situation is radically different: we’re not going pleading to the IMF for funds like in the 70s, 80s or 90s, and forced to sign an economic program. Argentina is being received at the IMF as a full sovereign country, strengthened by its own policies and with no links to IMF suggestions; as I said now it’s completely different”, said Boudou.

The Economy Minister also told reporters that the government was evaluating the possibility of formulating another offer for Argentine bond holders who refused the 2005 offer.

However, the Economy Minister said the offer would be “more advantageous for the country” adding that he expected to be able to make some announcement in the coming days before President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner leaves for an official visit to India.

Boudou also underlined that any agreement on the 6.5 billion USD debt with the Paris Club, “will be at the benefit of our country”. To this respect the Argentine minister held several meetings with his peers from developed countries which make up the club.

Sources from the Argentine delegation to the Istanbul meeting said that a mission from the IMF would be arriving in Argentina at the end of this year, or early 2010, as part of President Cristina Kirchner’s commitment to the Group of 20, G20, with the purpose of further advancing cooperation among countries suffering from the world crisis, but “it will not be a formal auditing or include advice or recommendations”.

Basically “it’s an assessment of Argentina’s policies to face the crisis in coordination with the rest of G-20 member countries and even if it is critical, it will not have conditions or policy impositions. IMF reports have been critical of the Chile, US, China, so there’s nothing new about this”.

More details of the coming IMF visit should be agreed during a meeting next month of the G20 in Scotland. Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are Latinamerica’s representatives in the G20.

The Kirchner couple administrations paid back all loans to the IMF in December 2005, claiming that meant the end of one of the “evil of evils” that have plagued Argentina’s economy and development. From then on relations were only formal but since Argentina needs access to world money markets, and therefore the blessings of the IMF are essential, the Kirchner administration has been side-stepping towards reconciliation.