The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told President Alberto Fernández that at the next board meeting to be held In November it will propose the elimination of the surcharge policy. The conversation took place within the framework of the G20 summit which took place in New Delhi and was confirmed to this medium by members of the official delegation. “We have the votes”, said the Bulgarian official in a brief dialogue with the Argentine president. If the initiative advances, it could imply relief of around US$1 billion annually.
Even though he IMF defines itself as a “lender of last resort”, in the geopolitical sphere that role is at least up for debate. Even more so after the recent events in which Argentina, which is its main debtor, covered part of the maturities with disbursements from other organizations such as the CAF and also with bilateral bridge loans from Qatar and China.
At the same time, since the Fund uses the United States Federal Reserve as a reference for its rates, its lines have become sharply more expensive in the last two years. To the point that according to sources from the economic team, Today, credit with the multilateral organization has higher interests than those granted by other entities such as the IDB, the World Bank or the CAF. Even using the swap with China or borrowing from Qatar are less expensive at the moment.
This also happens because Argentina is part of the group of almost twenty countries that pays flight attendants. IMF policy indicates that if the debtor takes out a loan above 187.5% of his quota, he must pay a surcharge of 200 basis points on the rate. That number scales 300 basis points if a loan remains above that percentage after three years.
On this point, the Government is excited that there will be progress before the end of the year. As official sources confirmed to Ámbito, the President had a face-to-face conversation with Georgieva in which the Fund official told him that she will propose the elimination of the flight attendants at the next meeting of the organization to be held in November.
According to members of the delegation who witnessed the talk, The Bulgarian economist assured that she has sufficient support on the board to move forward with the policy review. The new advance would occur despite the fact that in March of this year the organization itself avoided addressing the issue.
For at least three years, local diplomacy has been insisting on the issue. Thus, it gained support in different organizations and forums such as the G-20, the G-24 Celac, ECLAC, among others. If the Fund agrees to eliminate surcharges, Argentina could save close to US$1 billion annually.
Milei’s team returned from the US without dollars and with a reality check
Meanwhile, politics continues in motion and the world watches in amazement at the phenomenon of Javier Milei. More and more banks, investment funds and companies in general receive reports from Argentine consulting firms about the scenario in which the leader of La Libertad Avanza could face an eventual presidency and the reforms he plans to carry out within his economic plan.
Until now, the candidate who defines himself as “from the market” has generated more doubts than certainties among investors. To try to solve the x, the banker Juan Napoli and the accountant Dario Epsteintwo of his main economic advisors, They traveled to New York and held a series of meetings with executivesmostly Argentinians, who work in the financial center.
Ámbito was able to speak with two sources who participated in the dinner with bankers last Thursday. The reports coming from the United States confirm what many analysts have been pointing out from Buenos Aires, There is no interest from the markets in pouring fresh money to finance an eventual dollarization of the economy. The sources in question spoke of “improvisation, lack of data and few details about what will be done if the election is won.”
“New York is not going to put in a single dollar,” a participant summarized to this newspaper. who highlighted that there are still funds that entered the country during Macri’s time and are still looking for the exit door. A reality check for the candidate who claimed to have “secret agreements” to bring US$30 billion into the country to dollarize the economy in the short term.
Source: Ambito
