02/20/2020 - 19:11
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán , will meet next Saturday with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Steven Mnuch, in the Saudi Arab city of Riyadh, in the framework of the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 , which will begin on Sunday.
The summit of the ministers of Economy and heads of central banks of the G-20 will witness the first bilateral and official bilateral meeting between Argentina and the United States in the framework of the renegotiation of the Argentine debt.
The official also plans to meet this weekend with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and then head to Washington to continue negotiations with the IMF.
Guzmán's meeting with Mnuch occurs after the International Monetary Fund called on Argentina to restructure the debt with private investors, that is the bondholders. Also, the international organization considered that if the country manages to take that step, the possibility of default would decrease.
" The IMF staff assesses that Argentina's debt is not sustainable," was the statement that the IMF technical team made on Wednesday about Argentina.
The tone of that report was what the Government expected, because it endorses and supports what President Alberto Fernández and his Minister of Economy Guzmán state: that the country needs to restructure its debt with private and organizations. In fact, about the end of the day, Fernandez celebrated that "the IMF recognizes the Argentine position."
The statement specifically addressed the negotiation of private debt. It is estimated that more than US $ 100,000 million are held by bondholders . It was not mentioned what will happen with the debt with the IMF (about US $ 44,000 million), which Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, asked to restructure (strictly speaking, a take away) and endorsed the President himself while the FM mission worked in Buenos Aires these days.
The negotiations will continue this weekend in Riyadh, when Guzmán and the agency's manager, Kristalina Georgieva, meet in the framework of the meeting of the ministers of Economy and heads of central banks of the G-20. The holder of the Fund and Guzman will meet for the second time this month, after the meeting at the Vatican.