(Washington) The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved the disbursement of a new loan tranche of 3.8 billion US dollars to Argentina, it said in a statement on Friday. .
Posted yesterday at 9:47 p.m.
The decision, already approved by the Fund’s technical teams in September, was taken at the end of the second examination of a vast financial assistance program worth a total of 44 billion dollars over thirty months.
With the disbursement of this new tranche, around 17.5 billion dollars will have already been paid to Buenos Aires to strengthen the country’s economic stability and promote sustainable growth.
“In response to market disruptions in mid-2022, Argentina’s new economic team has adopted decisive corrective measures that are beginning to restore confidence and policy credibility,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in the statement.
“Achieving the primary fiscal deficit targets of 2.5% of GDP in 2022 and 1.9% of GDP in 2023 is key to moderating import growth, accumulating reserves, strengthening debt sustainability and further reducing dependence on central bank financing of the deficit,” adds the official.
“This will require further tightened expenditure controls and increased efficiency of subsidies and social spending,” the IMF further asserts.
The agreement with the IMF, signed last March, provides for a series of measures aimed at controlling the country’s chronic inflation (50.9% in 2021, 71% year-on-year in July 2022) and reducing its public deficit for the bring it back to equilibrium in 2025.
This is the 13e agreement between the IMF and Argentina since the country’s return to democracy in 1983.