As commented in the environment of the head of the Palacio de Hacienda, the US Treasury official recognized “economic achievements” and the progress made in “so little time”. Likewise, he highlighted the team of professionals that accompanies Massa.
In the meeting, which lasted for an hour, Minister Massa was accompanied by the head of INDEC and Secretary of Institutional Relations, Marco Lavagna. Meanwhile, counselor Andy Baukol also participated on behalf of the Treasury Department; the director of International Monetary Policy, Shannon Ding; and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary, Jacob Kloper-Owens.
One of the topics discussed with Shambaugh was the progress of the agreement with the IMF. It should be remembered that the Secretary of Economic Programming, Gabriel Rubinstein, the head of Advisors of the Ministry of Economy, Leonardo Madcur, the Secretary of Finance, Raúl Rigo is in Washington to close the review of the 2022 goals and enable the corresponding disbursement, as well as analyze the state of the macroeconomy to meet the 2023 goals.
In the second week of February, an IMF technical mission was in Argentina to fill in the necessary data for the preparation of the staff report. In this regard, it is estimated that this Friday the review by the technical staff will be completed -it is assumed that there will be no problems in its approval-. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors will discuss the Argentine case on March 21.
Continuing with the meeting of the head of the Palace of Finance with the Undersecretary of the Treasury the war in Ukraine occupied part of the hour of the meeting. In this regard, the Minister of Economy has been pointing out that both the drought and the war in Ukraine have implied higher costs for the Argentine economy.
It should be noted that in the G20 there is serious concern about the prolongation of the conflict and the intensification of threats from Russia, as well as the consequences it will have on the world economy and particularly in Europe.
The agenda of the head of the Palacio de Hacienda continues with a meeting with the Minister of Finance of India, Nirmala Sitharamanto work on the potential and technological possibilities between both countries, and the coordination of common approaches within the G20 meetings.
Subsequently, Massa will hold a meeting with Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Wang Dongweito advance bilateral economic and financial cooperation related to Chinese financing of infrastructure projects for development in Argentina and alternatives for strengthening Argentina’s international reserves.
Source: Ambito
