Buenos Aires (EFE).- Argentina announced this Sunday that it has reached an understanding with the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the review of the objectives and goals of the debt refinancing agreement signed in March 2022.
“The teams of the Ministry of Economy and the Central Bank of Argentina, and the staff of the IMF have finished the core aspects of the technical work of the next review,” reported the Argentine Ministry of Economy through Twiiter.
According to the Ministry of Economy, “the central objectives and parameters have been agreed that will be the basis for a ‘staff level agreement’ (agreement at staff level) that is expected to be finalized in the next few days and then move towards the review of the Argentina program”.
According to the message, also published on the IMF’s Spanish Twitter account, this “agreement seeks to consolidate fiscal order and strengthen reserves, acknowledging the strong impact of the drought, the damage to exports and tax revenues of the country” South American.
An agreement with the IMF fundamental for Argentina
For several weeks, Argentina has been negotiating with the IMF to introduce changes in the fiscal, monetary and reserve accumulation goals agreed in 2022 and to advance the quarterly disbursements stipulated in the extended facilities agreement, which allowed refinancing debts for 44,000 million dollars contracted with the Fund in 2018, during the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
Argentina, which suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances and, in addition, has suffered during the first half of the year from the effects of a severe drought that had a full impact on its agricultural exports -its main source of income- and has experienced difficulties in meeting the goals agreed with the Fund.
The approval of the quarterly reviews carried out by the IMF depends on the fulfillment of these goals, which is necessary for the organization to transfer to Argentina the disbursements that allow it to pay the debt commitments with the organization itself.
Argentina, with few monetary reserves, must face maturities with the IMF for some 3.4 billion dollars between July 31 and August 1.