MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina delays payments to IMF until April 30

What will Caputo seek during his trip to Washington between April 17 and 19?

The Argentine Government of President Javier Milei Monday decided to postpone maturities with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth US$ 1.94 billion until the end of this month. The move was within the provisions of the standing agreement between the South American country and the credit agency, it was explained in Buenos Aires.

According to Casa Rosada sources, this decision was taken to wait for the inflow of US dollars to be collected from agricultural export liquidations throughout April and thus leave the Treasury's reserves undented.

The IMF will carry out the eighth quarterly review of the agreement next month. Argentina will have to show that it accumulated net reserves worth US$ 6 billion by the end of March. Milei's administration has achieved that goal with over US$ 11 billion in the country's coffers since the new government was inaugurated on Dec. 10.

With May's revision, the IMF would approve a disbursement of US$ 797 million in the second quarter of the year and the net balance of quarterly payments would be around US$ 2 billion.

Economy Minister Luis Toto Caputo is due in Washington from April 17 to 19 to participate in a series of meetings with the IMF and other international credit organizations. He might request an additional disbursement or finalize a new deal altogether with the IMF to lift all restrictions on currency exchange, according to sources in Buenos Aires' financial circles.

The IMF imposes an additional surcharge of 4 percentage points as a result of Argentina's inconsistencies in honoring its commitments. Should the IMF eliminate this surcharge, the Argentine government could have as much as US$ 1 billion in interest sliced off this year.

In addition to the US$ 1.94 billion payment, Argentina needs to collect US$ 857 million for another maturity expiring on May 1.