A nod from the emergence to a claim by Guzmán | The…

In line with a request made weeks ago by Argentina, the group that brings together emerging countries, the G24, has urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to change its surtax policy “regressive and procyclical character” and help with economic recovery. This position was expressed in a statement at the end of a virtual meeting attended by the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán.

The ministers’ meeting took place as part of the IMF-World Bank Spring Joint Assembly, which is being held this week in Washington. The position of the G24 reflects the Claim promoted by Guzmán during the meetings of finance ministers in 2020. And it is also a positive signal addressed to Argentina within the framework of the national request for modification of the internal rules of the body headed by Kristalina Georgieva, including the ‘extension of payments beyond those technically available by IMF regulations.

“Since this is the year for that the IMF review its policies access limits and interest rate surcharges, we urge the IMF to correct the regressive and pro-cyclical nature of the surcharge policy and consider specific measures, such as suspending these surcharges at this time, to help countries to recover. , adding that “we encourage the IMF to continue to consider a permanent significant reduction in surcharges or their elimination,” he added.

In turn, Guzmán insured that “I want to celebrate the position of the G24 by stressing the urgent need for a review of the policy on access limits and interest rate surcharges in IMF lending programs, which is a regressive and pro-cyclical policy which further affects countries which are in more adverse circumstances and this is not in line with the mission to improve global financial stability. “And he explained that” in the context of the pandemic, an immediate suspension of surcharges, while policies are reviewed, would help countries to recover and should be considered “.

Along the same lines, the Minister stressed that “we must continue to work on building better frameworks in order to have more global public goods and to protect existing assets in a way that leads to greater economic and financial stability, as well as a more sustainable mode of production that protects our environment and I hope that we can work together to make significant progress in 2021 on all these subjects. ”

Minister’s participation

At the G24 meeting, Guzmán also called for options to be analyzed to voluntarily reallocate Special Drawing Rights (DEG) unused for all developing countries in need of liquidity, including emerging and middle-income economies.

Likewise, he assured that “the first necessary step for a sustainable and equitable recovery is to guarantee access to vaccines fairly. The inequality of access to vaccines between the most advanced countries and the others that we know is worrying, both in terms of humanitarian and economic consequences ”. “This fundamentally adds asymmetries to the existing asymmetries which are already significant, and if we do not change the situation in the post-pandemic period, an even more unequal world will arise, with more economic, social and political instabilities,” he said. he added.

Second, the minister said Argentina supports the IMF’s decision to approve a new general SDR allocation in the amount of $ 650,000 million. “We commend and applaud the positive and effective leadership of Kristalina Georgieva in this achievement and call for an exploration of options for the voluntary reallocation of unused SDRs to all developing countries in need of liquidity, including emerging economies and to middle income, “said the official.