After the last mission in February, the Monetary Fund will send a senior official to Argentina in the coming days.
This is the director of the organization's Western Hemisphere Department,
Rodrigo Valdés, who will participate in a business event on March 26 and 27
, in the midst of discussions with the government to advance a new program and reforms in Congress. .
According to IMF sources, Rodrigo Valdés plans to participate in the IEFA LATAM Forum, which is being held at the Four Seasons hotel in Buenos Aires under the motto of "cooperation for a sustainable world
.
"
He will inaugurate the forum together with Lisa Raitt, vice president of global investment banking at the Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) and Javier Gimeno, CEO for Latin America at Saint-Gobain.
Both the Fund and the Ministry of Economy assure that there are no scheduled meetings, but from Washington they acknowledge that the conversations "continue frequently" and that "it
is common practice for IMF staff to dialogue with its member countries
both virtually and in person (as on the last visit of the first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, in February).
Valdés took over his position in May of last year after being appointed by the head of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, to replace the Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, who resigned to preside over the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The role of the former Chilean minister is key for the region and for Argentina because he is
the one who supervises the program with our country.
The official will arrive in Buenos Aires amid the government's efforts to advance a stabilization plan to
expand the US$44 billion loan
obtained by Mauricio Macri in 2018, which Argentina continues to pay, and
modify the program
signed by Alberto Fernández in March 2022 to enable the possibility of fresh funds.
President Javier Milei assured on Friday that the possibility of a new agreement "is on the table" and that "it could contemplate disbursements from the Fund, other countries and investment funds that would also allow us to move towards the system of currency competition." with the weight."
And yesterday he reiterated in a report to La Nación +: "If I had
15 billion dollars today, I would open the trap today
. "
"Our objective remains to support policies aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability in Argentina, while protecting the most vulnerable. It is still premature to discuss the precise modalities of the program," they affirm in the IMF, and clarify the ongoing dialogue "not means that a formal mission for a review has been established.
The next one
will be in May.
The Government began to explore the path of a new agreement amid the difficulties in advancing the reforms promised to the organization to reinforce fiscal adjustment and deregulate the economy with the support of Congress.
The Senate
rejected
the DNU treatment last Friday and, although it is still in force, now the ruling party is exposed to Deputies overturning it.
The parliamentary setback, in turn, added new doubts
about the future of the new Bases Law
that Freedom Advances
seeks to have it addressed in April after its resounding failure in the extraordinary sessions.
The projects include the delegation of extraordinary powers, the privatization of companies and a new pension formula, along with the restitution of the Income Tax.
To avoid a negative market reaction, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced on Friday that the
primary fiscal and financial surplus
was reached in February , so the "zero deficit" is maintained.
But Milei needs the laws and the DNU both to clear up doubts about the "sustainability" of the plan in the Fund, the White House and Wall Street.
Caputo received the United States Treasury emissary,
Brent Nieman, on Friday to resume conversations
about the agreement with the IMF and the progress of the reforms.
The head of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, is the main shareholder in the Fund.
And both she and Gopinath insist that the Government should reinforce certain social plans and pensions, increase revenue and adjust subsidies.
Argentina concluded the last review on January 31 and received a disbursement of US$ 4.7 billion.
Since then, the Central Bank
purchased US$10 billion of reserves
for the quota available to pay for imports, but it needs more dollars to open the stocks.
And the drop in inflation thanks to the strong recession and the liquefaction of pesos raises doubts about the fiscal adjustment.