There, the board learned the latest details of the draft letter of intent negotiated between the technicians led by Julie Kozack and Luis Cubeddu, and the negotiating team headed by Martín Guzmán and Sergio Chodos, Argentine representative on the Fund’s Board of Directors.
Spokesmen for the multilateral organization avoided commenting on this newspaper’s query. However, sources with knowledge of what was discussed told Ámbito that this exchange on the board “was a step and a necessary condition to continue moving towards the agreement because the loan that the macrismo requested was of exceptional access (above what allows the quota that Argentina has in the organization)”. It is that the meeting discussed the evaluation of the criteria of “exceptional access”, which allows a country to receive a loan of more than 100% of its annual quota.
This meeting was the first in which the representatives of the countries that must approve the new program were able to get involved in the negotiations. In a previous meeting, which occurred days ago, they had simply had access to the guidelines of the preliminary agreement announced on January 28.
In official dispatches they considered that yesterday’s exchange was “positive” because it means that progress is being made in order to seal the agreement. They considered it a good sign.
The Government and the IMF seek to accelerate the discussions to close a new Extended Facilities program in the coming days. The objective of the Casa Rosada is that it be completed before the opening of ordinary sessions of Congress, which will be held on March 1 and in which, as always, President Alberto Fernández will give his annual message. The intention is that the project be discussed by both chambers during the first weeks of next month so that it is approved, ideally, before the 22nd, when an unpayable maturity of US$2.9 billion falls.
Yesterday, in statements to Télam, Guzmán assured that “once the agreement at the IMF staff level is finalized, a bill will be sent to the National Congress that in its annexes will contain all the documents that are the basis of that agreement, with every one of its details.
The exchange path and the possibility of tying it to the evolution of inflation, the IMF’s disbursement schedule with the aim of reinforcing the weakened reserves and the macroeconomic projections for the coming years (see page 2) were the last axes of negotiation.
Source: Ambito
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