President Javier Milei says that a new agreement with the IMF will clean up the accounts of the country’s Central Bank and wipe out inflation.<\/p>\n
In an op-ed published Saturday in theLa Naci\u00f3n\u00a0<\/em>daily, the head of state\u00a0said the impending deal would allow the government to pay off its debts to the bank.<\/p>\n The president blames\u00a0Argentina’s persistently high inflation rate on an excess money supply partly caused by the deterioration of Central Bank (BCRA) assets.<\/p>\n \u00abThus, the money received from the IMF will be used by the Treasury to cancel part of its debt with the Central Bank,\u00bb he wrote.<\/p>\n \u00abTherefore, the agreement with the IMF seeks to restore the assets of the BCRA, so that inflation is only a bad memory of the past,\u00bb he added.<\/p>\n The day before Milei’s article appeared, Economy Minister Luis Caputo again said a new finance programme had been agreed between Argentina and IMF staff. He described its need as \u00aburgent.\u00bb<\/p>\n \u00abThe programme and the amount have been defined with the staff [of the IMF]. The staff agreed and now what they are doing is taking it to the board, which is ultimately the one that decides whether to sign the agreement,\u00bb\u00a0Caputo said in an interview with the LN+ channel.<\/p>\n The deal must now go to the executive board of the IMF, which is the world’s lender of last resort and plays a stabilising function in the world economy.<\/p>\n On Thursday, an IMF spokeswoman had confirmed that negotiations with Argentina \u00abcontinue constructively\u00bb but remain under discussion.<\/p>\n Argentina is hoping to conclude the deal in the first quarter of the year, and local media reports estimate it will represent a loan of around US$10 billion. Wall Street analysts say it could be as high as US$20 billion.<\/p>\n IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack said on Thursday that \u00abbroad political and social support\u00bb could \u00abimprove the implementation of the programme\u00bb but is not a requirement of the Fund.<\/p>\n Last Thursday, Milei said the government would send a decree to Congress \u2013 and not a bill \u2013 to obtain support for a future deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00abIf there is one thing we can justify, it is that this agreement is of necessity and urgency,\u00bb Caputo said, arguing that a debate in both chambers would delay the programme. \u00abWe can’t go round in circles,\u2019 he added, assuring that the IMF \u00abis not asking for a devaluation\u201d of the peso.<\/p>\n Argentina has one of the highest inflation levels in the world, amounting in January to 84.5 percent year-on-year.\u00a0<\/p>\n But since Milei took office promising to cut spending and address government debt, price rises have slowed, with inflation dropping from 211.4 percent in 2023 to 117.8 percent in 2024.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2013 TIMES\/AFP<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nrelated news<\/h6>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n