MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Unofficial dollar falls after Batakis meets IMF Chief

Georgieva postponed her vacation plans to meet with Batakis, it was reported

The unofficial exchange rate between the US dollar (also known as “blue”) and the Argentina peso fell between AR$ 16 and 17 Monday after Economy Minister Silvina Batakis met in Washington DC with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and the World Bank agreed on a US$ 200 million loan to boost the country's coffers.

“Another productive meeting with Minister Batakis. We appreciate his initial efforts to strengthen fiscal sustainability,” Georgieva said after their first face-to-face meeting. She also highlighted the “importance of decisive implementation of the program to address Argentina's economic and social challenges” and praised Batakis' “efforts” to achieve “fiscal sustainability.”

The Argentine minister replied on social media that “we had a very constructive meeting with @kgeorgieva this afternoon in Washington.” She had met earlier in the day with Janet Yellen's advisor, David Lipton.

Batakis was flanked by Argentina's Ambassador to the US Jorge Argüello and by Deputy Economy Minister Karina Angeletti, in addition to other diplomatic officials.

Sources from the Argentine delegation said Georgieva had plans to take a vacation this week but chose to postpone them to meet Batakis.

The Argentine minister also met with IMF's Ilan Goldfajn, Director for the Western Hemisphere, and Julie Kozack, Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere.

Without much room for deep reforms, Batakis badly needs responses on how to overcome the current crisis before the domestic political scenario gets out of control with the market considering a devaluation of the Argentine peso inevitable.

At the World Bank, Batakis met with Executive Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg, where the US$ 200 million aid was agreed upon for a project to be handled by the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion, which seeks to strengthen innovation and foster the growth of the private sector through support for public-private partnerships, financing for the development, transfer, and adoption of technology for small and medium-sized enterprises, and support for entrepreneurs.

During the meeting, Batakis and Van Trotsenburg discussed the global impacts of inflation, the war in Ukraine, and Argentina's role in the global food crisis as a major agricultural producer.

Van Trotsenburg ratified that the entity will provide similar financing in 2022 and 2023 as in 2021 (U$2.1 billion), to expand the provision of basic services and help finance labor programs and works in sanitation, housing, health services, e-government, and urban transport systems, thus reinforcing the World Bank's continued support in this area over the past decade, during which it provided US$195 million to support Argentina's productive innovation agenda.

On a less encouraging note, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Chairman Mauricio Claver-Carone conditioned a US$ 500 million loan for Argentina to full compliance with the program and the commitments assumed with the IMF.