Chancellor Santiago Cafiero said that a review of the surtax policy of the International Monetary Fund is necessary (IMF) and affirmed that the level of debt in Latin America constitutes “a trap for regional development.”
“We support the need to review the IMF’s surtax policy,” given that currently “those who have problems are punished and penalized (…) We need a different look at this,” he emphasized.
“It is necessary to discuss many of these mechanisms that are not being consistent with what has happened in the world from 2008 onwards,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, in an interview published by the Spanish news agency EFE.
“Argentina is going through a heterogeneous situation today: two years of consecutive economic growth, with the projection that next year will be the third”
He noted that “from Bretton Woods on, the IMF has not changed its rules in a totally changed world.”
In January of this year, Argentina reached an agreement with the IMF to refinance the capital and interest maturities for two and a half years of the 44,000 million dollars that the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) received as a financial rescue in 2018.
Regarding the current economic situation in the country, Cafiero explained that “Argentina is going through a heterogeneous situation today: two years of consecutive economic growth, with projections that next year will be the third.”
“In a four-year presidency, we are going to grow three, and in the other there was a pandemic,” added.
He analyzed that “the big problem that the region has is its level of debt, the little fiscal capacity of the region to face the impacts of prices, (or to finance) projects in strategic minerals or natural resources.”
“Because it is the most densely populated area in the world with the longest years of peace, Latin America represents an opportunity”
The region has “debt levels above 80% and that, evidently, ends up constituting a trap for regional development,” he said.
He said that “Argentina is not exempt from this”, although “In the 2020 negotiation that we did with private funds, we saved Argentina 37.7 billion dollars and now with a new program with the IMF we try to stretch the terms of the payment schedule that we had.”
He argued that by 2023, Argentina intends to further strengthen regional integration: “The challenge that lies ahead is to identify safe and fair supply chains in our region.”
“Because it is the most densely populated area in the world with the longest years of peace, Latin America represents an opportunity. We have to add the Justice chapter, because they have to be safe but fair supply chains. That is the challenge,” he concluded. .
