MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
IMF holding constructive talks with Argentina on inflation and GDP data
Managing director Lagarde must report to the Fund's executive board by next Wednesday on Argentina's progress International Monetary Fund announced it was holding “constructive” talks with Argentina about addressing flawed economic data that led to an unprecedented IMF censure of a member country.
“Fund staff had constructive discussions with the authorities on their efforts to improve official data on the consumer price index and on the GDP,” said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.
The IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, must report to the Fund's executive board by next Wednesday on Argentina's progress in remedying the situation, he said.
On February 1, the IMF formally censured Argentina for failing to supply accurate data on gross domestic product and inflation as its membership requires.
The Fund had pressed Argentina for two years to provide factual figures, accusing the country of minimizing inflation and overstating GDP growth.
The censure by the board, representing the Fund's 188 member nations, paved the way for Argentina to possibly lose its voting rights, or even lose its membership, if it fails to improve the quality of its data.
Rice said there was no date set yet for the board to discuss Lagarde's report.
The data strains came in the context of long-running tensions between the IMF and Argentina, after the country defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2001 and largely blamed the Washington-based institution for its economic woes.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
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Read all commentsStep 1: INDEC to stop lying
Nov 09th, 2013 - 06:05 am 0Step 2: .....
Wow that easy! And yet it has taken Argentina 2 years and they still can't stop lying.
In other words...
Nov 09th, 2013 - 09:38 am 0We IMF are powerless to press Argentina in any manner so after so many years of reporting less GDP, high inflation and less per capita GDP and economy performance we now look like Idiots denying the obvious.
So we have to get away in some manner to don’t be seen as the clown of this soup opera and diplomatically we can accept that we were wrong and just we got an agreement with Argies because we will lost more then 3bn in income by performing the weak policeman without guns.
Clap, clap, clap.
Can you now update the figures or ARG GDP to 520bn please?
Thank you
@3
Nov 09th, 2013 - 09:48 am 0That's odd, it sounds more to me like an IMF exasperated and trying desperately to prevent another Argentine default, which will have a knock-on effect in the whole of South America.
If you don't stop biting that hand that feeds you, you're going to starve.
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