Between Monday and Tuesday, Guzmán is expected to meet with the counterpart of the Fund’s staff, the head of the team that negotiates with the country. Julie Kozack and the permanent envoy of the organization in Argentina, the Venezuelan Luis Cubbedu.
Negotiations are kept tight and the parties are willing to move forward with an agreement, although it is of special declared interest of the president Alberto Fernandez that the new agreement to reschedule the $ 45 billion inherited from the previous government be negotiated under a new scheme of lower interest rates, which Argentina and other developing countries will fight at the multilateral level at the summit that will take place next week.
It is about the attempt to remove the interest surcharges the IMF charges on exceptional loans, such as the one that Argentina requested under the presidency of Mauricio Macri, and which increase the cost of the credit that the country took from the Fund by around US $ 1 billion annually, according to official estimates.
The Government will insist that these surcharges be reviewed at this Fund summit, which already has the approval of the G20, and has the support of an international community of heterodox economists, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs. .
On Tuesday morning, the IMF – through its chief economist, Gita Gopinath – will release the traditional report on world growth prospects (WEO), which continue to be clouded by the evolution and outbreaks of the pandemic.
Guzmán will meet Georgieva, first at the G20 Finance Ministers Summit, and then a solo meeting is planned, according to relatives of the minister.
On Wednesday the 13th, the fourth summit of finance ministers and central bank presidents of the G20 under the Italian presidency will also take place in Washington, which will discuss issues of interest to Argentina, before the Fund’s annual Assembly.
“Following the historic agreement on the key components of the two pillars on the reallocation of profits from multinational companies and an effective global minimum tax reached in July, ministers and governors are expected to support the final political agreement to establish a further international tax. stable and fairer, “said the Italian government on the eve of the meeting.
The G20 ministers will also assess how to continue supporting vulnerable countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Italy added that “following the IMF’s blanket allocation of $ 650 billion in special drawing rights (SDRs), the debate will now focus on options for voluntarily channel a part of the SDR allocated to help countries in critical conditions. “
This new fund will be armed with resources from developed countries that do not need them to channel them to those who do need to use them, something that is also of special interest to Argentina.
Likewise, it was indicated that “the exchange of opinions on the Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and the reinstatement of the International Development Association, “among other agenda items that also include Climate Change.
In this regard, Guzmán insisted this week with a new multilateral scheme to face the countries’ debt crisis, during the XV Conference of the Unctad on Trade and Development.
“Reforms are needed in the international financial architecture” because there are “structural deficiencies that damage development possibilities,” and “it must be based on the principles of sustainability, transparency and fair treatment,” the official said.
The minister concluded that “there is an imbalance of power and information between debtors and creditors; the real opacity is on the side of the creditors; the creditors have more information about the debtor, than the debtor over the creditors.
The IMF summit takes place at a particular time, both for the entity and its head, Kristalina Georgieva, accused of having adulterated data from countries, including China, when Gerogieva was in charge of Operations at the World Bank.
The matter took flight at the highest level of world finance and reached the door of the United States Congress, which is pressing for the departure of Georgieva before the head of the Treasury of that country, Yanet Yellen.
There are those who do not rule out that the request for Georgieva’s departure has more to do with the escalation of the fight between China and the United States than with the alleged request for data adulteration of which she is accused and of which the last one has not yet been said. word.
Beyond this accusation, the veracity of which continues to be investigated, Georgieva was widely praised for her management at the IMF during the pandemic and for being at the forefront of the historic reallocation of SDRs that allowed countries with debt crises to improve the level of their debts. Bookings.
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