IMF forecasts inflation of 30.5% for Argentina in 2019

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced today its forecast for Argentina in 2019: inflation would climb to 30.5% and unemployment to 9.9% of the labor force, with a 1.2% decline in the economy.

The Fund said that after falling 2.5% in 2018, Argentina's gross product would record a drop of 1.2% this year to rebound in 2020 and increase by 2.2%.

The multilateral organization released Tuesday its latest report "World Economic Outlook", just hours before a new negotiation with the Argentine government.

Similarly, the IMF reported that the country had experienced a generalized rise in average prices of 34.4% in 2018, although the "end-to-end" comparison is 47.6% according to the Institute of Finance. Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).

As for the future in the short term, the Fund predicted that Argentina's average inflation in 2019 would be 43.7%, although it will reach December with a rise in price at a lower rate of 30.5%. . And in 2020, it will be an average of 23.2%.

In turn, unemployment, which currently stands at 9.1% according to the government, will increase to 9.9% this year and remain at this average throughout 2020, so that 39, no recovery is expected in the demand for workers.

Despite these negative data on the country's population and slowing growth in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019 and 2020, the IMF has been optimistic, in part because of Brazil's "moderate" performance. from Mexico, but more than ever. nothing for the "financial stabilization and recovery" that awaits Argentina, the third largest economy in the region.

The IMF bodes well for Argentina, which helped last year to obtain a $ 56,300 million credit to face a financial and monetary crisis. This amount is a record for the institution which, in return, has agreed with Mauricio Macri's government on a rigorous budget adjustment plan.

In its April report, the agency said that Argentina would contract in the first half of 2019 as domestic demand slows with tighter policies aimed at reducing imbalances. "

And he predicted that growth will increase again in the second half of the year as real income picks up and agricultural production resumes after the 2018 drought.