A presidential message to be negotiated with the IMF | …

President Alberto Fernandez closed the circle of Argentina’s position in the debt negotiation, directly asking international organizations and the IMF to review the conditions, deadlines and rates of the agreements. It was at the opening of the plenary meeting of the Economic and Social Council (CES) with members of the External Advisory Group, where the financial architecture in the new global scenario was discussed.

“It’s himself IMF the one who declared that the debt to private creditors should be sustainable, and if it was to be sustainable with creditors, it should also be sustainable with the Fund. You need to review the fares, fares and schedules. It should not be so complicated to review the repayment conditions, it is a debate that deserves to be given ”, declared the president. It was about the intervention of the body directed by Kristalina Georgieva in the negotiation with the private holders of the Argentinian debt.

The position of the President, which had already been expressed by the vice Cristina Fernandezwas followed closely via Zoom by members of the ESC External Advisory Group: specialists such as Jeffrey Sachs, Rebeca Grynspan, Eric LeCompte and Alicia Bárcena. “Debt has always generated an important conditioning factor in moving forward towards Argentina. It is a debt that has two fronts, it is a debt that the State has assumed with private creditors and another that it has assumed with the IMF. Thanks to a great job by Guzmán, we were able to resolve, find a way out of debt with the private sector and be able to deal with it with the same sustainability margins as offered by the IMF itself. To be able to reschedule a debt so that it is possible to meet it, ”said the president.

He also quoted an anecdote from this negotiation: “He always told private creditors that what he was looking for the most was not to postpone payments but to find a solution, give us time to grow and that what we promise to pay in the future we can accomplish. Otherwise, the debt restructuring is delayed, and I don’t want to delay it, I want to solve it, ”he said. And he added that “we have found an intermediate point of agreement with the private parties and this has allowed us that after 10 years we have very significant savings on the total debt”.

He then pointed out that “once this has been resolved, we have the problem with the Fund. I insist on the fact that it must have the same conditions as this agreement with the private parties. An agreement that makes what we agree on sustainable. And that is the discussion, which is a frank, honest and fruitful discussion that we have with the Fund ”. In this sense, he continued to show that “for me, Argentina he got into debt in an incomprehensible way. When we paid off the entire IMF in 2005, we had to pay $ 9.8 billion, the debt that had existed since the Fund was created. Now we are faced with a debt that is over four times that much, and it was incurred in just a year and a half. The debt was of such magnitude that we as a country exceeded the same limit that the IMF imposes on countries. ”

A debate in a pandemic

“This debate must take place, especially in the event of a pandemic. It is a debate that I propose to see how we can fulfill our obligations by providing a definitive solution to the problem. That it translates into adequate and on time tariffs ”, declared the President. And he referred to a recent letter from Pope Francis which raises the need for more responsible international organizations in the crisis: “I have read Pope Francis’ statement, which seems to me to be in line with what I am talking about. Encourage international organizations to face the difficult times in which we live and to seek that the agreement can be fulfilled without affecting the needs of our people. If we take into account the fact that poverty reaches 50% in Greater Buenos Aires, we see the dimension ”.

Fernández clarified that, from any point of view, the idea is not to pay. “This is an opportunity for the world to review the operating logic of the international credit system,” he said. And he added that “the emergency must force the credit organizations. Nothing I’m proposing is slamming the door and taking an aggressive approach towards the IMF, I think the situation demands that we reconsider.

Before closing his participation, he assured that “I am not going to talk about the Argentine case, because I do not want them to give Argentina a solution, I want them to find a solution not only for the countries poor but also for intermediate countries. income country. We are treated like rich countries that we are not, this debate makes a lot of sense ”.