Argentina’s latest effort to restructure its overseas debt probably won’t be its last, according to ex IMF advisor and Harvard University economist Carmen Reinhart, who has sounded alarms overcoming emerging markets crises in Venezuela and Turkey.
The International Monetary Fund’s discussions with Argentina have been very productive and the fund is willing to do whatever it can to help get the Argentine economy back on a solid footing, an IMF official told reporters.
By Geoffrey Okamoto – The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the global economy at every level. Across the world, financial conditions have tightened dramatically, with unprecedented portfolio outflows from emerging markets in terms of both size (a record of about US$100 billion) and speed, and markets effectively frozen in some cases. This has created sizable demand for U.S. dollar liquidity, with emerging markets facing sharp liquidity shortages.
British and European Union (EU) officials restarted on Monday a week-long round of Brexit trade talks after a break because of the coronavirus, which is making an end-of-year deal look even more unlikely. After a first-round in early March negotiations were suspended for six weeks as officials focused on the deadly virus sweeping Europe.
New waves of social unrest could erupt in some countries if government measures to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic are seen as insufficient or unfairly favoring the wealthy, the IMF said in a new report on Wednesday.
IMF Managing Director Ms. Kristalina Georgieva announced that the Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Uruguayan economy will decrease by 3% this 2020. The “great closure” has been how the international body has defined, as the title of its World Economic Outlook, government measures against the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19.
The International Monetary Fund sees the world economy suffering its worst recession since the Great Depression this year, with emerging markets and low-income nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia at particularly high risk.
Argentina will continue talks this week and next with creditors over restructuring its US$ 83 billion in foreign debt, Economy Minister Martin Guzman said after the country missed the March 31 deadline it had set previously.
The coronavirus pandemic has driven the global economy into a downturn that will require massive funding to help developing nations, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday.