A delegation headed by the Vice Minister of the Economy, Gabriel Rubinstein, will travel to Washington on Monday night to meet with authorities from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and close the negotiations for the approval of the third review of the program, which will trigger a disbursement of $5.8 billion before the end of the year.
The Argentine delegation that will accompany Rubinstein is completed by the head of Advisors to the Ministry of EconomyLeonardo Madcur, the Finance Secretary, Eduardo Setti, the Budget Undersecretary, Raúl Rigo, and the head of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec)Marco Lavagna, reported at the Palacio de Hacienda.
After the recent visit of representatives of the multilateral organization to Argentina, they will now seek to finish negotiating the third revision of the program at the organization’s headquarters, to eventually receive a disbursement of US$5.8 billion before the end of the year.
The third review corresponds to the IMF audit of Argentina’s economic numbers for the third quarter of the year, and is part of the program that the country signed with the IMF in March 2022 to refinance the US$ 45,000 million with the multilateral organization, inherited from the management of Mauricio Macri.
It is not ruled out that the Argentine delegation raises during their stay in Washington, from which they return on Friday, the negative effects of the war in Ukraine for the reserves of the Central Bank, which, according to the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa himself, was around $5.2 billion.
However, for the IMF authorities, this unexpected red was around US$3.7 billion, although everyone agrees on the devastating effect of the armed conflict in terms of the cost of energy.
In this context, the Argentine authorities also foresee “request extra effort” by the IMF, depending on what is being paid for a “war we did not choose”.
“It is a discussion that we have to give, we hope that our counterparts sign commitments with clauses of incidents unrelated to the agreements signed in a timely manner,” they pointed out from Economy.
The Fund mission that recently visited the country was made up of a group of technicians who report to the head of the Mission to ArgentinaLuis Cubeddu, and was handled in a very reserved manner, although both parties prevail optimism to consider the goals of the third quarter fulfilled.
Another substantial point that is part of the agenda with the IMF is the review of the surcharges applied by the agency on the loan granted to Argentina.
The Government highlighted the support of the leaders of the #G20 to the IMF surcharge review claim
✍️ Daniel Scarímbolo, special envoyhttps://t.co/OYzImIPfBz
– Telam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) November 16, 2022
In fact, at the recent summit of the G20 that took place in Bali, Indonesia, the leaders of the member countries agreed on a final declaration proposing the review of the IMF’s surcharge policy, in line with the proposal that the Argentine government has been making in recent months.
The Argentine position was supported by Germany, France, South Africa, Brazil, Spain and Mexicoand the issue was also part of the meeting that President Alberto Fernández held with the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva.
“We must review the surcharges that the most indebted countries are paying. They are very high rates that have no logical explanation”said the President after his meeting with the head of the IMF.
Support for Argentina’s position on the IMF’s surcharge policy was revealed in point 33 of the final document, which states: “We are committed to supporting all vulnerable countries so that they can recover stronger together,” and also stresses “the commitments for an amount of US$ 81,600 million through the voluntary channeling of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) or equivalent contributions”.
In this way, the G20 leaders call for the commitment of all countries capable of meeting the total global ambition of US$ 100,000 million of voluntary contributions for developing countries.
