Regarding the status of the negotiations between the Fund’s staff and the Argentine authorities “I characterize them as that we continue to work to reach a complete understanding in a comprehensive program that can address the economic and social challenges on a sustained basis, aiming to strengthen economic stability by facing the high inflation that proportionally affects the most vulnerable, ”he said.
I reiterate that what was said this week that for the IMF “It is important that this plan has political and social support and our objective is to help Argentina and the Argentines to lay the foundations to achieve a more sustained and inclusive growth ”, endorsing the presidential decision to raise a possible agreement with the body to Parliament.
Regarding the evaluation that the IMF is carrying out on the loans granted to the country during the administration of President Mauricio Macri, Rice clarified that “this ex post evaluation that we carry out is done for all exceptional programs, it is not something special that we do for Argentina, we do it for all cases “” will be presented as always to our executive directory and then it will be published “but did not specify dates.
Regarding the macroeconomic review contained in Article IV, Rice said: “I am not sure about the status of the next Article IV),” and reiterated that “we are having a strong, active and frequent commitment to a potential new program.”
Multiannual Program
The government is determined to send a multi-year program (in principle greater than one year) to Congress for approval. The date is still the first days of December and as President Alberto Fernández himself pointed out “Martín (Guzmán) is working on that.”
This Thursday, the presidential spokesperson, Gabriela Cerruti reiterated the date it was sent to Parliament and specified that the program will contain “a number of agreements necessary to carry out a multi-year economic and social program that includes some of the agreements that are being worked on with the IMF staff and that set a course for the decisions that we are going to make ”.
He also remarked that “There is a vocation to reach an agreement, that there is unity of all the political forces that make up the government coalition and that there is certainty that this will be achieved as soon as possible, ”said Cerruti.
Although it is rectified regarding “achieve it as soon as possible” to leave a margin of negotiation by stating: “Not as soon as possible, but when it is necessary to achieve it and when the necessary agreements have been reached.”
The government estimates that it will have an agreement closed before the first quarter of the year, as the president told businessmen. In addition, the urgency is given by the maturities that the country must face.
To give an idea, from November of this year to March of next, obligations with the multilateral organization for 6,260 million dollars are registered, practically more than the totality of the net reserves that remain in the BCRA, according to different private estimates.
Meanwhile, the Fund, through a spokesperson on Monday, stated that “It is important that this plan has broad political and social support. Our objective continues to be to help Argentina and its people ”by endorsing the official strategy for the program to be approved by Parliament.
Likewise, they once again emphasized that work continues for “a complete understanding of a comprehensive plan that can address in a lasting way Argentina’s most urgent economic and social challenges, including high inflation, which disproportionately harms the most vulnerable.”
One of the aspirations of the government to close an agreement with the IMF was to achieve that it is defined to reduce the rate of surcharges for exceeding the loan quota, funds that would demand an additional 1,000 million dollars per year.
It is also negotiated to include a pari passu clause so that, if in the future, the agency establishes loans of greater extension than the Extended Facilities (10 years), Argentina can avail itself of said benefit.
One of the points made clear by the president in his speech this Sunday was that the program “It will contain the points that the government is willing to comply with”, They explain at the Casa Rosada.
Source From: Ambito
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