More than 12 years after the debt was settled with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Argentina will return to finance itself with a loan from that agency. The person in charge of the announcement was the president Mauricio Macri, who recorded and spread a message from Casa Rosada amid the strong volatility of the dollar that today set a new record again when touching $ 23.66.
"Our economic plan depends a lot on external financing," justified the president to then inform that negotiations have already begun with the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, to close the loan.
Macri did not give details of the amount and conditions of the loan. Now it is expected that Finance Minister Nicolás Dujovne will speak, who is going to offer a press conference later today.
"During the first 2 years we have a favourable international context, but that is changing: the interest rates are raising, and the devaluation of emerging currencies is happening. We are from the countries of the world that depend more on external financing. In this context, I have decided to initiate the talks with the IMF, to grant us a line of financing” said the President, and then he added: "I made this decision thinking about the best for all Argentines, not lying to them”.
With this decision, Argentina is again financed with resources from the International Monetary Fund, 12 years after Néstor Kirchner cancelled the debt with that organization with Central Bank reserves. It was close to US $ 9.5 billion that he paid in cash.
Now, the government returns to that organization as part of a set of measures to curb the economic uncertainty, amid the dollar's rise and persistent inflation. These actions include the increase of monetary policy rates by the Central Bank of Argentina, the reduction of the dollars that banks may have in their vaults -from 30% to 10 %-, and an adjustment of the fiscal deficit target of 3, 2% to 2.7%. The consequence of this last measure is that the budget for public works will be cut by some US $ 30,000 million.
Date: 8 May 2018
Source: http://www.ambito.com/920594-argentina-vuelve-a-financiarse-con-el-fmi-macri-anuncio-el-inicio-de-negociaciones-para-un-prestamo
