President Alberto Fernández and the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, met on Friday at Quinta de Olivos to analyze the details of the technical discussions with the International Monetary Fund to close the letter of intent to implement the new program in the coming weeks. for the debt of US$ 45,000 million.
This was reported by official sources at Government House, noting that the meeting lasted in Olivos for a good part of the morning and allowed the President to review with Guzmán the details of the issues under discussion with the Fund’s staff after announcing two weeks ago that had come to an understanding.
The same sources assured that the Government “works with the conviction that the necessary votes of the board will be obtained to approve the agreement”, an instance in which the director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, will raise for the analysis of the representatives of the 24 member countries.
In this way, the possibility that Argentina could go into default at the due date scheduled for the end of March for some US$ 3,000 million is also ruled out, since it is hoped that the agreement will be approved beforehand by the Argentine Congress and the Fund members.
As part of this work, Guzmán also held a meeting with the Argentine ambassador to the United States, Jorge Argüello, with whom “they are seeking to speed up the steps ahead of the board meeting and within the framework of a permanent dialogue” with the government. of President Joe Biden.
The sources affirmed regarding Guzmán’s meeting with Argüello that “there are no formal complaints” by the United States Government about any statement that could have been given in the framework of the recent presidential visit to Russia and China, for which any discomfort in the relationship is ruled out.
On his return from China, President Fernández highlighted the international accompaniment of the understanding, and expressed confidence in obtaining the support of the majority of the ruling coalition.
On Thursday, the spokesman for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gerry Rice, assured that work continues with the economic team to reach a “definitive agreement as quickly as possible” between both parties, which already has prior understandings on subsidies to energy and external financing.
“Negotiations continue, we are working very closely with Argentine government officials to reach a staff-level agreement and mobilize external financing to improve Argentina’s resilience,” Rice said at her usual Thursday press conference.
There is no face-to-face mission on the agenda in Buenos Aires or Washington, although the parties aspire to reach a technical agreement as quickly as possible.
