The Argentine government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached an agreement to pay out the country 4.65 billion dollars (around 4.2 billion euros) as part of the seventh review of the Extended Facilities Program (SAF).
The money will help the country Dealing with upcoming debt maturitiesbut it also contains an implicit message: we must reward “the strong political efforts” of the government of Javier Milei, so controversial for many because of the policies he implemented.
The agreement, confirmed by both parties and much celebrated by Casa Rosada, allows for the disbursement of almost $4.7 billion (3,500 Special Drawing Rights, SDR). A statement using a harsher tone than usual stressed that “the program has gone seriously astray” and that “The end-September targets for the primary budget deficit were not achieved and preliminary data indicate that the year-end targets were missed even more significantly,” reports Efe, alluding to the term of office of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
The IMF also recalls in its text that before December 10, when the government of the libertarian economist Javier Milei took office, “the net targets of international reserves had not been achieved, with deviations from the year-end target of around 15 billion US dollars”.
For this reason, the fund supports “the strong policy efforts of the new authorities to restore macroeconomic stability” and can thus help Argentina “meet its balance of payments needs.”
An agreement has been reached on a “reinforced set of policies” that will lead to this Restoring the country's macroeconomic stability and resuming the current program after its main objectives were “far from being achieved due to the previous government’s serious political setbacks,” Europa Press reports.
Praise for Milei
In this sense, he praised the policies of the government of the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, which he described as such “ambitious stabilization plan” These include “a comprehensive initial fiscal consolidation,” “measures to replenish reserves, correct relative price imbalances, strengthen the central bank’s balance sheet and create a simpler, rules-based and market-oriented economy,” and “an increase in social assistance.” protect the most vulnerable.
This payment, which will be used to repay the capital maturities in December, January and April, was planned for November, but the change in government delayed the talks. Last Monday, Argentine government spokesman Manuel Adorni said that in talks with the IMF they were neither seeking a new program nor requesting new financing beyond the current 44 billion euros (40.1 billion euros) aid program.