Lipton praises the decor | The interim holder of the F …

Interim Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, David Lipton, has been optimistic about the results of the agency's program for Argentina and said that "this is paying off". Despite the government's inability to weather the recession after more than a year of decline, which translates into daily announcements of business closures and layoffs, Christine Lagarde's replacement at IMF highlighted the implementation of the adjustment plan agreed with Washington. .

"Argentina has had its ups and downs, we understand that political uncertainty can affect feelings, but the good news is that the country has implemented the policies developed under the program, which have been implemented and are paying off, "said Lipton. interview with the British newspaper Financial Times.

The program evoked by the transitional head of the IMF focuses on the search for zero deficit and the application of a very high interest rate so that investors do not run up to the dollar. The consequences of this policy are the persistence of the decline in consumption, production and employment. Last week, for example, the publishing house SM was closed, with nearly 200 redundancies, caused in particular by the decrease in purchases of textbooks by the state, as part of the plan to reduce public expenses.

According to Lipton, Argentina will be among the countries that will recover in 2020 after suffering "extreme stress". "Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey and Iran will recover a little" next year, he said. The IMF board of directors approved last Friday the fourth review of the program with Argentina and confirmed the sending of a new tranche of extraordinary credit of $ 5,400 million. When you enter this money in the next hours, 44,500 million euros will be closed, out of a total of 57,000 million committed.

Following Friday's decision by the board, Lipton said in a statement that "the government has been able to meet its fiscal targets while protecting social programs and using tax tools to protect the most vulnerable." vulnerable effects of the recession ". . At the same time, he said, "the authorities have also asked the IMF to support the broadening of the ceiling on minimum social spending to include badistance programs for childless adults and children. low-income working mothers ".

As for the global economy, Lipton told the Financial Times: "We expect an acceleration next year, but that presupposes some very important things, including the fact that trade tensions continue to grow. be resolved instead of stepping up. "