The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, affirmed this Thursday that once the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approves the audit of the national public accounts, the disbursement of US$ 4,000 million agreed with the multilateral organization will arrive.
“It is estimated that the Board (of the IMF) would be discussing this agreement on June 24. As soon as it is approved, the disbursements arrive. There is no hiccup, it is absolutely standard. All the scheduled times are met,” Guzmán said in a federal interview that was broadcast on Radio Nacional, with the participation of Télam.
The interview took place in a small studio set up in the Microcine of the Palacio de Hacienda and lasted for an hour with a federal vision, starting with the participation of a group of correspondents from the station.
The minister recalled that the audit approved by IMF stafffollowed “a procedure that is absolutely standard, basic in the functioning of the IMF, in which the review is completed in a job between the IMF staff and the Argentine government, which ended yesterday.”
“Then the approval of that agreement between the staff and the Argentine government is made available to the IMF board, which is where the shareholders of the countries are. It is always like this, the disbursement is made after the board approves that agreement. review,” he said.
The evolution of the economy
Regarding the evolution of the economy in the short term, he pointed out that “Argentina needs a path of exports that grow. In order to sustain economic growth, dollars are needed, and in order to lower inflation, dollars are also needed.”.
“It is important to gradually achieve a productive structure that has more capacity to generate foreign currency; to be able to produce what the world demands or produce what we buy from the rest of the world, which is what happens in the case of energy, particularly in the case of gas,” he added.
Precisely, the energy issue was part of the back and forth with the minister: “the availability of dollars for diesel imports is 100% of what is needed,” he emphasized.
Pipeline
Regarding the gas pipeline tender, Néstor Kirchner reaffirmed that “they have followed Technical specifications that fit what was defined as needs in terms of transportation capacity in Argentina”.
“What has been done from a technical point of view is unobjectionable and there is a need for demand for supplies, some local and some imported, based on these technical characteristics that have been clarified in a statement from the company that is executing it.Enarsa, and also yesterday the Secretary of Energy, Darío Martínez, made a public reference,” said Guzmán.
In the energy sector “the opportunities are really great. This allows us to build a future and connect the short with the medium term for an Argentina that continues to grow, generating jobs and opportunities.”
Regarding the evolution of the public debt market in pesos, invited the press to “interview economists who were in the previous government, or now aligned with the opposition, to say what they would do with the public debt in pesos. They could not do it. It would be something very serious for the country and it would be responsible if the opposition manifests itself publicly in this regard”.
“Under our government, the public debt market in pesos is going to be strengthened. Investments now come to the real economy, to produce things, not to carry out financial speculation,” Guzmán remarked.
