IMF releases US$10.8 billion to Argentina and insists on fiscal prudence

Saturday, April 6th 2019 - 09:33 UTC

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The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed on Friday the third review of Argentina’s economic performance under the 36-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) that was approved on June 20, 2018. The completion of the review allows the authorities to draw the equivalent of SDR 7.8 billion (about US$10.8 billion), bringing total purchases since June 2018 to SDR 28.01371 billion (about US$38.9 billion). Read full article

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Jonaz_BsAs
“Fiscal prudence”? IMF has just lent 57bn USD to a junkie and expects prudence, lmao
Apr 07th, 2019 - 12:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Enrique Massot
Jonaz is right. If a bank loans officer approves a large loan to someone known for spending money like there is no tomorrow and then that person fails to pay back, said officer's job will in serious risk.

Here, we have the IMF giving its largest-ever loan to a country that had been borrowing abroad like a drunken sailor, paying crazy interest rates and allowing record-breaking capital flight until the private sector stopped lending.

The result? IMF's--lent money went to service Argentina's foreign debt and not much more. In the meantime, the IMF assumed the control of the country's monetary strategy, and recession deepened as a result of “deficit zero” measures the IMF imposed.

Of course, the IMF is not made up of a bunch of idiots. Their goal when “helping” Argentina is twofold:

1. To ensure Argentina pays those lenders interest and capital -- in time. As such, the IMF operates a massive transfer of public money (from IMF associate countries) to private lenders who are making a killing with Argentina sky-high interest rates.

2. To try and prop Mauricio Macri so that he has some chances in the October presidential election.

While (1) may succeed, (2) has much lesser chances.
Apr 07th, 2019 - 11:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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