It was the result of the meetings that he held both with the World Bank and with World Bank authorities and with the IDB. With loans for up to 650 million dollars concentrated in two lines: one for the food security program and about 200 million dollars for the pre-financing of SME exports.
As for the IDB, the disbursement program will be for some 700 million dollars more destined to the knowledge economy, and for infrastructure works.
This Wednesday, the announcement of the US$ 7,500 million from the IMF is expected to materialize, funds that are not necessarily incorporated into the weak reserves of the Central Bank but that seek to give a signal that the government is committed to maintaining exchange rate stability.
“The process of accumulating reserves will continue. In the last 21 days, the Central Bank has accumulated 1,700 million dollars beyond the disbursements that come to strengthen the situation”, said the Minister of EconomySergio Massa in a press conference from Washington.
The head of the Palacio de Hacienda explained that the drought significantly affected this process of accumulation of foreign currency and to graph the impact of a drought he mentioned that yes, this situation had occurred in the United States, it would have meant some “805 billion dollars less in terms of exports and for Brazil about 95 billion dollars less.”
In any case, Massa insisted that the government’s objective is to continue working to “accumulate reserves without slowing down activity” and criticized those who favor accumulating reserves by slowing down economic activity by holding back dollars to import.
I rule out that the electoral result could condition the disbursements of the IMF. “What did condition initially was the value of sovereign securities in Argentina with a brutal fall due to the result of the election and, later, as we announced the measures, it began to recover.
When asked about how much he expects inflation to be in August, the minister stated: The imposition made by the IMF within the program requiring Argentina to devalue has an inflationary impact, clearly the Fund’s demand to ask us for a devaluation to comply with the prior actions of the program has an inflationary impact”. But, she clarified that, regardless of what affects August, they expect it to return to more reasonable levels in September and October.
To reiterate again that “The IMF’s demand to ask Argentina for a devaluation has an impact on inflation.” In Massa’s team it is commented that with the measure of the corn dollar more reserves were accumulated than with the devaluation.
The minister commented that both at the meeting of the World Bank and the IDB the issue of the electoral result arose and Massa commented that “If they’re worried about someone promising (by Milei) that they’re going to build the economy using their currency, that sounds weird to them.” And, I take advantage to ironize by saying: “I suppose that some permission or talk they have had with the Federal Reserve or the Congress of the United States who today offer dollarization to Argentines” and I conclude by stating: “I suppose it will not be an electoral story”.
The afternoon concludes with a meeting at the United States Treasury with an open agenda where “bilateral issues” will be discussed, although they do not rule out that the electoral issue is part of the conversation.
Source: Ambito
