RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – An International Monetary Fund mission concluded a visit to Argentina on Sunday, after several days of preliminary talks aimed at repaying about US$ 44 (R$242) billion owed by the cash-strapped government to the fund.
The delegation of IMF economists arrived early last week, led by Julie Kozack, Western Hemisphere deputy director for the IMF. “This first visit has concluded,” the government source confided to the Buenos Aires media.
Argentina recently restructured about US$ 65 billion in non-performing bonds. The country is in a deep recession exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The government says an IMF revamp is its next step toward debt sustainability.
In 2018, then-President Mauricio Macri signed a US$ 57 billion standby lending agreement with the fund in a failed attempt to halt a run on the local currency. Argentina got US$ 44 billion of the IMF money before suspending the “unsustainable” agreement.
Sergio Chodos, IMF executive director for the Southern Cone and Argentine representative before the organization, told local newspaper Perfil on Sunday that the mission was “exploratory” and would be followed up by more in-depth debt revamp talks probably in November.