The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, held a meeting at the G20 finance ministers summit with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgievawho highlighted the “good progress” regarding the development of the fourth review foreseen in the program with the country.
“Very good discussion with @SergioMassa on the sidelines of #G20India regarding the new challenges facing emerging markets and Argentina. Progress is being made in the fourth review of Argentina’s program and we hope to communicate its conclusion soon,” Georgieva said in a message on her Twitter account after meeting with Massa at the G20 finance ministers’ summit that is taking place in the south. Indian city of Bengaluru.
The sum of support for the approval of the fourth revision of the program – which will unlock a disbursement of US$ 5.8 billion from the multilateral organization in March – was one of the axes of the bilateral meetings that Massa held in India since the summit began on last thursday.
The sum of support for the approval of the fourth revision of the program -which will unlock a disbursement of US$ 5.800 million- was one of the axes of the bilateral meetings
In the same way, Another of the objectives of the head of the Palacio de Hacienda was to achieve concrete consideration by the G20 and the IMF on the impact that the war in Ukraine has on the Argentine economy, as well as the situation that the country is currently facing due to the drought.
The minister seeks that these aspects are taken into account in the fulfillment of goals that the country will have this year in its fourth reviews that will be evaluated by the Fund.
In addition to meeting with Georgieva, Massa touched on the issue Thursday by meeting at the summit with US Treasury Department Under Secretary for International Affairs Jay Shambaugh and on Friday with his counterparts from Italy, France, Germany and Brazil.
In parallel, the Vice Minister of Economy, Gabriel Rubinstein; and the head of advisers of the Palacio de Hacienda, Leonardo Madcur; finalized this week in Washington the details to obtain the technical approval of the fourth revision.
After the end of the technical negotiations, the document will be submitted for analysis to the agency’s board of directors, in a meeting that would take place in the last weeks of next March.
So far this year, Argentina has already transferred to the IMF close to US$3.2 billion, which are part of the total maturities of US$19.85 billion that Argentina will have to deal with the organization during the current year, which will be paid with the disbursements of the current program.
The period under analysis is the fourth quarter of 2022, the year that Argentina closed with a primary deficit (not including debt services) equivalent to 2.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with an overcompliance of one tenth, since the agreed goal was 2.5%, as reported by the Government last January.
For 2023, the primary deficit goal is 1.9%, in a year marked by several conditions that the Argentine government raised in the discussions in Washingtonamong which are the need to take into account the impact of the drought on the agricultural harvest and consequently on the income of foreign currency, as well as the continuity of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has an impact on energy prices and transportation and logistics costs.
Very good discussion with @SergioMassa on the sidelines of the #G20India about the new challenges facing EMs and Argentina. Good progress is being made on the fourth review of ?? program and we hope to communicate its conclusion soon. pic.twitter.com/rJoKToKY1i
—Kristalina Georgieva (@KGeorgieva) February 25, 2023
