Government's economic package will not include program changes with the IMF

WASHINGTON.-
package of measures to be presented by the president

Mauricio Macri

this week in a new attempt to contain the scourge of inflation will not include announcements about the program with the International Monetary Fund (

MFIs

). The Minister of Finance,

Nicolás Dujovne,

He denied the existence of specific negotiations for the revision of the agreement, although the governments emphasize that there is an ongoing dialogue with the Fund on the economic front.

"The announcement of the President does not include announcements concerning the Fund, it is a set of measures on which we agree with all partners of Cambiemos" said the Minister of the Interior,

Rogelio Frigerio,

in a brief exchange with the Argentine journalists of the Fund.

When asked if he planned to modify the program with the Fund, Frigerio used a formula used in Washington and Buenos Aires: he recalled that the dialogue between the authorities and the personnel technicians is fluid and permanent. The number two of the IMF, David Lipton, this week received the President of the Central Bank,

Guido Sandleris,

and Dujovne. Argentinian officials also met the head of mission for Argentina, Roberto Cardarelli.

"We are still discussing with the Fund to see what additional instruments we can use to better navigate this difficult route, but the President should not announce anything beyond this set of measures we have worked on in recent days," he said. Frigerio.

Yesterday, Dujovne participated in a panel with the fund's general manager,

Christine Lagarde,

on investments in infrastructure. At the end of the interview and going through the corridors of the body, Dujovne made a brief round trip with the press in which he denied any negotiations on the agreement or the scheme of bands of dollars. "No," he answered frankly to both questions of
THE NATION.

Asked about his meeting with Lipton, Dujovne replied, "Program monitoring, tax numbers, routine, routine, routine." This is the only statement the head of the US Treasury made to the press during his five-day visit to Washington, during which he traveled in the greatest secrecy and with unusual discretion.

The Fund's two economists, who are following the Argentinian program more closely, the director of the Western Hemisphere, Alejandro Werner, and Cardarelli have left open the possibility of modifying the Argentine program. However, during an interview with correspondents, they made it clear that it was important to "respect the rules" of the plan and suggested that, to change the exchange rate policy or the scheme in matter gangs, it would take a change of scenario to justify it, something that the staff does not plan for the moment.

Frigerio said the ads would be aimed at boosting consumption, reducing inflation and going through a "difficult time". It is expected that the price increase will tend to decrease over the next few months, but the Fund warned that this decline would be "gradual". The Interior Minister rejected the idea that the ads indicate that the plan agreed with the Fund has failed.

"When you apply different monetary measures to those with which we work, as was done last year, you must generate a delay of at least one semester until these measures begin to have a real impact, "said Frigerio. "This means that these measures take a long time to impact the price level and we are aware that this road is a very difficult road for a significant part of the Argentines and we understand that we must take steps to mitigate this difficult transition towards able to control inflation, which is related to the balance of public accounts, "he said.

In the middle of the debate on the brace that the agreement with the Fund imposed on

central bank

To control the dollar, Frigerio said that there is a "significant correlation" in Argentina between dollar volatility and price volatility and that "Argentina is different from other countries because, in times of crisis it tends to dollarize its portfolio. "

"I think that after so many years, the same thing has happened to us, we expect it to be understood," he said referring to the IMF. . "But we clearly agree that the mother of the problem of inflation, and would add the general problems of the Argentine economy, begins with imbalances in the public accounts," he said. -he adds.