Fernández says IMF agreement not closed because Argentina “is not going to kneel down to pay a debt”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Alberto Fernández affirmed this Wednesday (27) that Argentina “is not going to kneel down” before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and conditioned an agreement with the multilateral organization to renegotiate a US$44 billion debt to “not put the future of Argentines at risk”.

“If we have not yet reached an agreement (with the IMF), it is because we are not going to kneel, because we are going to negotiate until our people do not see their future at risk by paying a debt,” he said in a tribute to former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), on the 11th anniversary of his death.

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The only speaker in a stadium full of militants in the city of Morón, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Fernández evoked Kirchner, who after taking office in an Argentina in default, renegotiated a debt of almost US$100 billion with private creditors and settled in 2006 in a payment a deficit of US$9.8 billion with the IMF, to which Argentina turned to again in 2018.

MEETING IN ROME

The President, who is scheduled to meet with the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, during the weekend in Rome on the occasion of the G20 Summit, insisted that “we are not going to make an agreement that further postpones the Argentines who have been postponed”.

“I will confront everything necessary, and I will close (an agreement) with the Fund the day I know that this does not condition the future of Argentina”, warned the President.

At the event, Fernandez demanded the IMF to “take responsibility for the damage it did” by granting in 2018 to the government of former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) credit for US$57 billion, a record amount for the organization, of which Argentina received US$44 billion.

SEEKS EXTENDED FACILITIES AGREEMENT

“I would like the newspapers (critical) of Argentina, instead of asking me to rush an agreement with the Fund, in any way, to tell the Fund to take responsibility for the damage it did by giving Argentina a debt that could not be paid,” he warned.

Argentina is starting to show signs of recovery after more than three years of recession aggravated by the pandemic, is seeking to replace the 2018 stand-by agreement with another extended facilities agreement.

According to estimates of the Ministry, the country should pay to the multilateral organization, between capital and interests, about US$19.341 billion in 2022, US$19.589 billion in 2023, and US$4.936 billion in 2024.