The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is trying to pull Argentina out of the inflationary spiral and poverty, the institution’s managing director said on Thursday, assuring that there was “no alternative” to a deal.
“Our main goal is to get Argentina out of this very dangerous path of high inflation,” Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview with a few journalists, including AFP. “We know inflation is a tax on the poor.”
She urged focusing on getting a deal and implementing it.
Argentina and the IMF announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement in principle for the renegotiation of a colossal debt of 44 billion dollars in exchange for economic reforms.
As both parties work to finalize the terms of the program, Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged that the deal won’t solve all the problems at once. “But what is the alternative?” she asked. “There is no alternative”.
Without an agreement, the economic situation will continue to deteriorate and poverty, including that of children, will increase even more, she argued.
“So our team is striving to get the best for the country,” she said.
Asked what would happen if the government’s IMF-backed economic plan were challenged in Congress in Argentina, she stressed that she was not going to “speculate” on the issue.