NEW YORK (Reuters) – Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman said on Thursday “important steps” have been taken towards the goal of refinancing the roughly $45 billion the country owes to the International Monetary Fund.
Guzman, who met with IMF officials earlier in the week, said on Twitter that a macroeconomic policy scheme must be sustainable and support economic recovery, in what he called a “radical change” from the philosophy of the failed deal signed with the fund in 2018, which the current negotiations aim to replace.
Guzman had initially targeted an agreement in April-May, but the date has been dropped from communications from both the government and the fund. Investors are widely expecting that a deal won’t be reached before legislative elections in late October.
“There was a common understanding of the need for macroeconomic sustainability and for safeguarding the post-COVID recovery underway,” said in a separate statement Julie Kozack, deputy director of the western hemisphere department at the IMF, and Luis Cubeddu, the fund’s mission chief for Argentina.
The statements from Guzman and the fund follow comments from Argentina’s influential Vice President Cristina Fernandez in which she said the government cannot pay the $45 billion it owes the fund under the current deal conditions.
Her comments, made on Wednesday which was a national holiday, were weighing on local Argentine markets on Thursday.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
