Argentina's Fernandez won't seek remaining $11 billion from IMF Macri bailout [View all]

[sandensea]

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2019, 08:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernández said Tuesday he would he will not request the remaining $11 billion from a record, $57 billion credit line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“What I want, is to stop asking (for money) and for them to let me pay,” said Fernández, who takes office on December 10.

“I have an enormous problem. And I'm going to ask for $11 billion more?”

There was no immediate response from the IMF, which granted outgoing President Mauricio Macri the bailout after a carry-trade debt bubble known locally as the “financial bicycle” collapsed in April 2018.

Amid the worst recession in two decades, Macri on October 27 became the first Argentine president to lose re-election.

Fresh faces

The IMF yesterday named a new head of mission in Argentina, Venezuelan-born head of the IMF's Open Economy Division Luis Cubeddu, to replace Roberto Cardarelli.

Cubeddu, 53, was part of the IMF's Argentina office between 2002 and 2004 - in the aftermath of the collapse of similar IMF-sponsored policies in 2001.

Among the Argentine officials he met at the time was Alberto Fernández - who served as cabinet chief for then-President Néstor Kirchner.

Kirchner rejected the IMF's austerity policies, and amid a strong recovery went on to pay Argentina's entire $9.5 billion IMF debt in 2006.

Fernández now faces a $45 billion IMF debt - plus another $160 billion in other public foreign debt, most of which is due within the next four years.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/fernandez-says-he-wont-seek-remaining-us11-billion-from-imf.phtml

Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernández greets U.S. Ambassador Edward Prado yesterday.

Fernández inherits twin economic and debt crises from his IMF-backed predecessor, Mauricio Macri - whom the IMF granted a record, $57 billion bailout against the advice of its own economists, and reportedly on U.S. President Donald Trump's orders to bolster Macri's re-election chances.

Trump however, according to Fernández, has “instructed the IMF to work with (Argentina) to resolve the debt problem.”