MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fernandez tells IMF, “we want to make a commitment that we can keep”
“We want to make a commitment that we can keep,” the incoming Argentine president told the IMF Managing Director (Pic file) Argentina’s president-elect, Alberto Fernandez, has a “sustainable” plan to meet creditor obligations as well as maintain growth, he told the International Monetary Fund´s managing director Kristalina Georgieva, his office said.
On Tuesday, Fernandez told Georgieva there was no room for more fiscal adjustment due to an “enormously complex domestic economic situation”, his office said in a statement.
“We want to make a commitment that we can keep,” the incoming Argentine president added. The Fernandez camp statement said Georgieva told him she wanted to see Argentina leave behind “boom and bust cycles” to achieve a trajectory of sustainable growth.
She added that she wanted to work with Fernandez to tackle dual issues of inflation and promoting growth, it said. In its statement, the IMF said Georgieva assured Fernandez, a Peronist elected last month, of the IMF´s “readiness to engage” with his government and work towards “paving the way for sustained growth and poverty reduction.”
Following the phone call from Ms. Kristalina Georgieva to president elect Alberto Fernandez,, the IMF Managing Director made the following statement, “I had a very constructive call with President-elect Alberto Fernández today. During our conversation, we talked about Argentina's economy and Mr. Fernández’ views on the country's main challenges going forward.
“I stressed the IMF's readiness to engage with his government and work towards paving the way for sustained growth and poverty reduction. We agreed to pursue an open dialogue for the benefit of the Argentinean people.”
The word constructive in diplomatic terms means that both agree to admit their disagreements. The focus of president elect Fernandez seems a repeat of what happened back in 2003, when Nestor Kirchner became president and his economy minister was Roberto Lavagna. Basically their argument was that without growth, there is no way a country can repay its credits.
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Read all commentsYes a 100 pesos a day in perpetuaty
Nov 20th, 2019 - 10:51 am 0The IMF has not option but to thread lightly with Argentina's future government, and provide realistic payback alternatives.
Nov 23rd, 2019 - 11:34 pm 0Elected president Alberto Fernandez has already made a goodwill gesture by stating that the debt will be recognized and paid -- however, not at the cost of shrinking further the economy.
If negotiations are going to be successful, the IMF will have to -- at least implicitly -- acknowledge its co-responsibility in the phenomenal increase of Argentina's foreign debt.
The IMF's casual approach taken to lending an all-time record amount of money to the Macri government in spite of clear signs of mismanagement is something former director Christine Lagarde should be called to answer at some point.
Macri and his gang's irresponsibility had already been clearly shown long before private lenders stopped sending dollars to the country.
May be GC is right -- the debt should be paid back in pesos instead of dollars. However, I believe payments should be a bit larger than 100 pesos a day -- let's make it 1,000!
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