The technical mission of the Argentine Government with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will end this Thursday, after four intense days of work, prior to the meeting between the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva.
Sources close to the minister indicated that the official task will end this Thursday, and they were satisfied with the work carried out by the technical team that traveled to Washington to start the second review that will later allow to trigger some 4,100 million dollars, once it has the green light from the board.
The team is made up of the Vice Minister and Secretary of Economic Programming, Gabriel Rubinstein; the head of advisers, Leonardo Madcur; the Secretary of the Treasury, Raul Rigo; the Secretary of Finance, Eduardo Setti; the director of the Central Bank, Lisandro Cleri and the head of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), Marco Lavagna.
The air that is breathed in the economic team is that Argentina would be in a position to approve the second review, and go further and meet the goals
The Secretary of Energy joined the technical delegation that met with the Fund, Flavia Royon, who played an important role in explaining how the new rate segmentation scheme worksan important starting point for the IMF, for the gradual elimination of the subsidies that weigh on the fiscal deficit.
On Wednesday night, the entire economic team was seen having dinner at the Sofitel hotel, very close to the White House, while Massa had an informal meeting with the State Department diplomat, Kevin Orelly.
“The technical negotiations were going very well,” Massa was heard saying in the different forums in which he participated, and one of them was the meeting with the main advisers to President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, Mike Pike and Juan González, in the White House.
There, US officials showed the willingness of the US government to collaborate with the country in the IMF, and Massa thanked the gesture of support for the ongoing negotiations.
In this context, Massa will meet next Monday with Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the IMF, and with David Lipton, from the US Treasury.
Massa is also expected to meet with IMF management, including First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath and Western Hemisphere Department Director and former head of Brazil’s Central Bank Ilan Goldfajn.
The air that is breathed in the economic team is that Argentina would be in a position to approve the second review, and go further and meet the goals.
Massa came to this city to reaffirm that the goals with the IMF will be met and that the fiscal deficit will be lowered to 2.25%, as agreed in the 2022 agreement
The IMF positively evaluated the credit support of the IDB and the World Bank, which promised to disburse funds by 2022, which would help stabilize the balance of payments, while energy demand falls for the winter and Argentina implements its new “plan energy” to try to supply -and subsequently export gas- in the long term.
Massa came to this city to reaffirm that the goals with the IMF will be met and that the fiscal deficit will be lowered to 2.25%, as agreed in the 2022 agreement.
The role of Raúl Rigo in the delegation has to do with the fact that, in parallel with the discussions with the IMF, the 2022 Budget is being finalized, which would be presented on September 15, and which must be approved with the numbers agreed with the Fund to ensure compliance with the plan.
Here Massa also gave a mandate to the technical team to affirm before the IMF that in 2023 the fiscal deficit will be 1.9%, in accordance with the agreement with the Fund, which was ratified by the National Congress, sources indicated to Tel.
