The first face-to-face meeting with the Managing Director lasted 20 minutes. A meeting that beyond the formal presentation between the two where they agreed on something main: fiscal sustainability. “Another productive meeting with Minister @sbatakis. We welcome her initial efforts to strengthen fiscal sustainability and we agree on the importance of the decisive implementation of the program to address the economic and social challenges of #Argentina”, published the IMF on its Twitter account in what was the first repercussion of the meeting.
But it was not the only thing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was firmer and stressed that the economic situation in Argentina “is very worrying” and that lowering inflation should be an “absolute priority” of the Government. This was stated by the Chief Economist of the Fund, Pierre-Oliver Gourinchas at a press conference in Washington.
Argentina has at this point an inflationary process that is not anchored. Year-over-year inflation in June was 64% if I’m not mistaken. There are expectations that it could increase further in the course of the year. And, of course, bringing inflation down to a more stable level, to a more stable macroeconomic environment, has to be the top priority for the country. It remains to be seen whether the policies that have been put in place so far will achieve this, that remains to be seen. Without a doubt, that is the issue that must be addressed head-on, ”he closed.
Late on Tuesday, faced with doubts about a possible change in the goals of the agreement in a pressing context, Batakis denied it: “We did not directly address the issue of goals, but we were talking about how we are going to meet the goals, basically,” he explained. .
Conversations with investors
On his second day in Washington, Batakis met with investors. The search was going down another lane: to provide a panorama of Argentina that is currently complex but with good prospects for the future. In this sense, the minister held a breakfast with representatives of more than twenty signatures of wall street who traveled especially from New York to listen to his economic proposal and his perspective. The meeting was “positive” and the forcefulness and sincerity of the minister was highlighted when speaking about the most difficult issues for Argentina.
“Like a technocrat”, that was the look of the businessmen who had breakfast with the minister this morning. Among the breakfast participants were representatives of international funds and Wall Street investment banks such as Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Goldentree and VR Capital Group, banza, Bank of America, Citibank, Santander Investments, Stone Harbour, among others.
In a frontal dialogue with representatives of international funds and investment banks, there was a “brutal honesty” meeting with questions and answers.
The attendees asked the minister about the political sustainability of what she is trying to do, and Batakis replied “that she has the support of all the referents of the Front for All.” The minister also pointed out that A serious fiscal adjustment has already begun that will be felt in the economy. He stated that it is something to which “not afraid” because it was already done in the Province of Buenos Aires.
According to official information provided by Jorge Argüello, The meeting lasted for two hours.
The official interlocutor of the meeting revealed that Batakis “appreciated the reestablishment of dialogue with investors and expressed his willingness to mend Argentina’s broken link with the market.” He remarked that the minister expressed that she “will maintain an open door policy with them, to take into account her perspectives and suggestions.”
Likewise, the official “crudely described the scenario she received, particularly due to the acceleration of public spending in the first half of the year, and explained the measures announced on July 11, which will allow, according to her projections, to reduce by one point percentage of GDP the fiscal imbalance”, among other issues.
Before returning to the country, the minister also held bilateral meetings with the president of the Chevron oil company for production and exploitation in Africa and Latin America, Clay Neff. He also held bilateral meetings with directors of General Motors, Amazon and Google.
The vice president of the automaker, Omar Varga, confirmed to the minister the investment plan that he will develop together with the Livent company. The objective is part of its vehicle battery development programyes
The message to Evita
Upon his return, Batakis, like the rest of the government ministers, spoke about the anniversary of Eva Perón’s death. On his social networks, he wrote: “Evoking his name is also assuming a commitment. To work every day for a freer and more sovereign country, which strengthens its economic recovery, without ever forgetting that the priority today and always will be to protect the most vulnerable. Eternal Avoid”.
Source: Ambito
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