BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Technicians from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed to relax the targets agreed with Argentina for 2023 under the program to refinance a debt of 45 billion dollars due to the impact of the drought on exports, the main source of foreign exchange for the South American country.
With the new agreement, Argentina has committed to achieving a series of objectives to benefit from a four-year grace period until 2026, during which the installments are paid with disbursements from the IMF.
“The Argentine authorities and IMF staff have reached a staff-level agreement on an updated macroeconomic framework and associated policies needed to complete the fourth review under the arrangement with Argentina,” the IMF said on Monday. multilateral organization in a press release.
In March 2022, the government of Alberto Fernández signed a new program of extended facilities to refinance the debt with the IMF, which amounts to some 45 billion dollars and had been contracted in 2018 under the leadership of his predecessor Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
According to the IMF, “all quantitative performance criteria through end-December 2022 have been met to some extent”. He pointed out that the primary budget deficit reached 2.3% of GDP (against a target of 2.5%); net international reserves increased by $5.4 billion (above the $5 billion target) and real GDP increased by 5.4%.
However, the IMF has proposed to its board “a modification of the net international reserve accumulation target for 2023”, according to a statement signed by Luis Cubeddu, deputy director of the Western Hemisphere department, and Ashvin Ahuja, chief. of the agency’s mission for Argentina. . .
“This will partly take into account the increasingly severe impact of the drought, while taking into account the offsetting effects of lower energy import prices and agreed policy measures. Most of these developments are to be completed by early 2023, in line with the predicted impact of the drought.
It has not transpired what will be the new reserve accumulation target that the South American country must achieve.
According to estimates by the agro-export sector, Argentina will be deprived of an income of some 20,000 million dollars this year due to a drought that has affected the main export crops, such as soybeans.
The IMF’s announcements on Monday are subject to the approval of its board of directors in the coming weeks. If given the green light, Argentina will have access to $5.3 trillion to meet deadlines with the agency itself.