MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US Ambassador compliments Argentine gov't

President Fernández is “taking this ship to a good port,” Stanley said.

The United States Ambassador to Buenos Aires was full of praise for Economy Minister Martín Guzmán's handling of the recent deal between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying “the work he did was impressive.”

Ambassador Marc Stanley said those words Tuesday during a meeting with 22 executives from US companies at the US-Argentine Chamber of Commerce in Buenos Aires (Amcham).

Stanley highlighted “Guzmán's knowledge and ability to work on every issue” and said the minister should be credited for what was achieved in refinancing maturities worth US$ 45 billion.

When the diplomat was making that speech, Guzmán walked into the room.

The minister then took the stand to say that “the sustainability of external public debts is a necessary condition for any process of economic and social development, whoever governs, and it must be a State policy.”

He added that in reaching the agreement with the IMF “we worked with the logic of building a common sense of what is needed.”

“We want to meet the goals for us because that is what we consider that the macroeconomy needs to follow a healthy path,” he added.

“Argentina grew 10.3 % in 2021 and will grow in 2022; it is important that this growth takes place with the accumulation of reserves and that in 2023 we find ourselves with conditions on the external front to continue sustaining growth, understanding that this is always limited by the restriction of foreign currency,” he went on.

Regarding the deficit monetization reduction agreed upon with the IMF, Guzmán underlined that “it is important to reduce the Central Bank's financing to the Treasury, converging to zero in a feasible way.”

“If we were to do it all at once it would imply doing something on the fiscal side that would be destabilizing for the recovery,” he also pointed out.

Stanley also praised Argentina's Ambassador to Washington DC, Jorge Argüello: “He is the best partner I can imagine,” the US diplomat stressed.

Regarding President Alberto Fernández, Stanley said the head of state was “taking this ship to a good port.”

(Source: Ámbito)