Repeating the experience that Martín Guzmán used during the inspections of the first quarter of the year (management that ended in April with the thumbs up of the local public accounts), the contacts were made virtually, with between two and four communications daily via satellite between Buenos Aires and Washington. On one side, the officials on the fifth floor of the Palacio de Hacienda.
On the other, on the sixth floor of the IMF headquarters, Luis Cubeddu as the main negotiator, and with Ilan Goldfajn and Gita Gopinath as occasional guests. The person in charge of the IMF in the Argentine case eventually received a visit from the managing director for the Western Hemisphere and number two from the Fund; as general overseers of the negotiations. From Buenos Aires eventually appeared the Secretary of Finance, Eduardo Setti; Lisandro Cleri, Massa’s man at the Central Bank; the Planning Secretary and Deputy Minister, Gabriel Rubinstein, and the Treasury Secretary, Raúl Rigo.
They all discussed several times, agreed others, and finally negotiated the great numbers of the Argentine variables; and from both sides of the connection it became clear last weekend that there are not many differences between what is demanded from Washington and what will be presented from Argentina. In general, he assured himself, the weather was good and certainly optimistic; confirming the presumption of the two parties to the negotiations, that at least for the period analyzed (second quarter of the year), there was no intention to kick the board. Neither Argentina wants to break the agreement nor does the IMF demand its unrestricted compliance. Though
most of the agreed goals and objectives are far from being met
. With this scenario on the table, and with the trip of the Argentines to the North American capital as negotiating infantry; the intention of the head of the Treasury Palace is that at the time of the summit with Kristalina Georgieva; the final political advance is made to approve the numbers and percentages of the analyzed period. Then it would be the task of the bureaucracy of the international organization so that before September 30 the mission on the second quarter of the year has received the endorsement of the board. That day the country should receive almost US$2.3 billion to meet the 2018 Stand By fee, which according to the Extended Facilities signed in March should be paid with money from this agreement.
As this medium assured, Sergio Massa will replicate the accounting strategy developed between April and May by Martín Guzmán, and which Silvina Batakis later also proposed to the IMF: adopt as valid the numbers and percentages developed during the era of the ruling party’s Prime Minister of Economy to close the fiscal and monetary accounts for the January-June period; which in theory would be in tune with what was signed with the financial institution to comply with the current Extended Facilities agreement. Massa will assume as valid and will take as his own management the numbers and percentages of the second half of the year, but always on the assumption of sustaining the commitments negotiated by his predecessor and endorsed by Alberto Fernández, which resulted in the agreement approved by the Board of the body on March 25 last.
This had been determined between Guzmán and Alberto Fernández first and between the former minister and his successor Silvina Batakis, during the crisis arising from the ejection of the former and the arrival of the latter, on that weekend of almost terminal crisis for the ruling coalition. . In almost the only chapter that the parties were able to discuss separately, it was agreed that the Extended Facilities with the IMF would remain in force, and that Guzmán’s strategy for the first half of the year would be defended. Batakis accepted it. And now Massa also endorses.
Source: Ambito
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