The IMF board approved the 30-month agreement with Argentina to refinance US$44,000 million, which will allow the immediate disbursement of US$9,656 million, as reported this afternoon by the body chaired by Kristalina Georgieva.
The new Extended Facilities agreement (EFF) includes a two and a half year program with the IMF, contemplates four and a half years of grace and allows Argentina to extend the repayment of the debt with the organization until 2034.
The new agreement will have a duration of 30 months within the framework of the Extended Fund Service for Argentina for an amount of 31,914 million SDRs, equivalent to US$ 44,000 million, or 1000 percent of the country’s quota in the IMF.
The decision of the Executive Board allows the authorities an immediate disbursement of 7,000 million SDRs, which is equivalent to US$ 9,656 million.
Thus, he argued that the IMF-supported Argentine program establishes “pragmatic and realistic objectives, along with credible policies to strengthen macroeconomic stability” and begin to address Argentina’s deep-seated challenges.
The program seeks to improve public finances and begin to reduce persistently high inflation through a multi-pronged strategy, involving a gradual elimination of monetary financing of the fiscal deficit and improvements in the monetary policy framework.
On Tuesday, ahead of this Saturday’s meeting, the head of the IMF maintained a zoom with President Alberto Fernández and with the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, who then held intense last-minute negotiations from Paris to ensure a “broad majority in favor of the agreement” as it was finally achieved.
Georgieva affirmed that the program approved by the IMF “establishes pragmatic and realistic objectives”
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, affirmed that the program approved by the agency’s board for Argentina “establishes pragmatic and realistic objectives, along with credible policies to strengthen stability and begin to address deep-seated challenges” .
I welcome our Executive Board’s approval of the new #IM F program with #Argentina. The program sets pragmatic and realistic objectives, along with credible policies to strengthen stability and begin to tackle deep-seated challenges. I look forward to its strong implementation. https://t.co/nuuKuxwMH9
— Kristalina Georgieva (@KGeorgieva) March 25, 2022
“I look forward to its strong implementation,” he stated through his Twitter account, announcing “with pleasure the approval” of the Executive Board of the new program that will allow Argentina to reformulate the maturities for the debt of US$ 44,000 million contracted during the Cambiemos management.
This new understanding also includes financial guarantees from the Paris Club in support of the Extended Facilities program that has a duration of thirty months, allowing Argentina to secure the financial sources identified in the agreement with the IMF.
Consequently, with the endorsement of the agency’s board of directors for the agreement on extended facilities, Argentina and the Paris Club undertook to conclude the process of definitive modification of the Agreement defined in the “Joint Declaration of 2014” before June 30 of the current anus.
