what did he say about the agreement with the IMF

Nicolás Dujovne, the former economy minister who signed the loan with the IMF in the government of Mauricio Macri picked up the gauntlet for the criticism he received in recent times and justified the decision made during his administration: “I do not regret having gone to the Fund, Argentina’s problems are very big, the IMF was helping us to solve them at a lower cost.”

In turn, he stated that two of the most serious problems facing the country are “permanent defaults” and relapse into “exchange controls.” When asked about the destination of the dollars that arrived in the country (the stand-by agreement established a loan for US$57,000 but US$44,000 were finally sent), Dujovne explained: “The dollars did not evaporate, we used them to stay current on debt while improving the fiscal position. We reached equilibrium on the day we left and we were going to have a surplus in the following years.” For the former minister, the goal was “replace Fund financing with market financing”.

In reference to the harsh IMF report last December, the economist added: “In the work carried out by the Fund, part of the criticism is that the fiscal program should have gone faster with structural reforms. There is a criticism of Argentine society that did not accompany the continuity of a program that was helping us to solve structural problems”.

And by way of self-criticism, he admitted: “it may be that we have not gone fast enough with the fiscal correction. I think we were headed in the right direction.”

Finally, despite the fact that he pondered that an agreement with the IMF has been reached, the former minister criticized that it is not a “change program.” “I am convinced that to grow, you have to change. The Argentine economy no longer has land to grow, it needs us to fertilize it with reforms. We have to go towards labor, pension, and tax reform and open ourselves up to the world.”