Official internal on the destination of the US $ 4,500 million that Argentina will receive

Juan Manuel Barca

06/20/2021 21:06

• Clarín.com

• Economy

Updated 06/21/2021 9:04 AM

The IMF will approve this Friday

a historic aid of US $ 650,000 million to member countries

to reinforce reserves and facilitate recovery from the crisis due to the pandemic.

It is about the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an initiative that generates strong pulls within the ruling party for the final destination of the almost

US $ 4.5 billion

that

Argentina will receive

.

The head of the agency, Kristalina Georgieva, will present the proposal to the executive board after obtaining the support of the rich countries of the G7, including the US "

This will help shore up reserves and generate fiscal space for spending

that they are needed to emerge from the pandemic and for recoveries to be more sustainable, "he said last week.

According to the regulations, once the measure is approved, it

must be dealt with by the Board of Governors in August

, whose decision to approve the SDR assignment requires the support of a majority of 85% of the votes.

And once that instance is concluded, the money order would probably be available by the end of that month.

The SDR distribution is distributed among the IMF member countries according to their relative quotas in the IMF.

In the case of Argentina, the fee for being a member of the Fund is 0.67%, about 3,187.3 SDR, equivalent to US $ 4,461 million.

But

the Ministry of Economy has yet to define how it will use them 

in a year with maturities of about US $ 7 billion and elections on the way.

"It was known that you had to wait for a long time after half the year, for example August,

it will be seen when they are available what the final use will be

. Meanwhile, the technical negotiation on surcharges and the agreement with the IMF will continue with the premise that be good, as a priority, before it is fast, "said official sources.

The idea of ​​Minister Martín Guzmán at first was to allocate them to strengthen reserves, but at the end of April

a group of senators close to Cristina Kirchner

requested

him

through a draft declaration that the funds derived from the issuance of SDRs

be applied to finance health, poverty and unemployment, and "not to pay the debt

.

"

According to the IMF, countries can use these resources as part of their reserves, sell them or use them as part of their SDR quota.

They can also exchange them among themselves for free-use currencies through voluntary agreements or credit operations and payment of obligations.

"They can exchange them for dollars and use it whatever they want. Once they use or sell them it has a cost of 0.5 per thousand per year, practically free. They are reserves of the Central Bank and are not part of the Budget, so

the request of Kirchnerism it is achievable

, in the sense that there are more reserves and they can be used, "explained

Claudio Loser

, former director for the IMF's Western Hemisphere.

The BCRA has already bought US $ 6.3 billion in reserves

to avoid exchange rate pressures before the elections, but

it is not clear if they will reach

after November. The Government will face payments of US $ 4.7 billion between August and December with the Fund and another of US $ 2.4 billion at the end of July with the Paris Club. Then, in 2022, the amounts rise to more than $ 19 billion.

In this framework, the SDR will be key.

"To use them, someone has to agree to receive them, it is not a payment currency," explained former Finance Secretary

Daniel Marx

.

In effect, these are international reserve assets with which the IMF makes loans, the value of which arises from a basket of five currencies (dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen and British pound) that is updated every day.

"To change the special drawing rights for pesos, they have to sell them to the BCRA, it would be an issue of money," said Marx, adding: "they

must be discussing whether to pay maturities or give it another use

."

The Chief of Staff, anticipated weeks ago that they will be used to "promote activity and employment, that is the determination of the President." For the former Argentine representative to the IMF,

Héctor Torres

, however, "this may translate into reinforcing reserves of the BCRA or to settle the country's external liabilities, "he said.

"

I would not rule out a scenario in which we go to the brink of a default

with the IMF," he warned.

YN

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