New IMF mission to arrive in Argentina to review progress of agreement

Ironing the dollar, falling rates and investor confidence rising. The "financial summer" that the Argentine economy is going through since last month will witness the new mission of the International Monetary Fund in the coming days. The scene is quieter than his last visit last Novemberwhen end-of-year tensions have again affected the market climate.

As you may have known Infobae, the technicians of the Fund, commissioned by the Italian economist Roberto Cardarelli, head of mission for Argentina, They will arrive in the country on the 11th of this month and will meet as usual with the officials of the Ministry of Economy, in charge of Nicolás Dujovneand the Central Bank, including its president, Guido Sandleris. This will be the third revision of the confirmation agreement signed in June of last year and extended in October for a total amount of 57 100 million USD for three years.

As indicated by the Fund, the technicians will also meet "representatives of the private sector, universities and civil society"as they did on other occasions.

These missions usually last for a few weeks, during which technicians review the economics figures and then send a recommendation to the IMF board, which chairs the meetings. Christine Lagarde The council has the last word and its technical and political considerations come into play.

After the last review of Fund technicians and almost at the end of the year, the multilateral credit agency has yielded to Argentina about $ 7.6 billion. Once the new mission is complete and IMF envoys take into account the objectives and board With his approval, the country will receive next month another disbursement of about $ 10,000 million.

The government of Mauricio Macri It will have pocketed about $ 40 billion since the signing of the agreement, agreed in the midst of turmoil that led the Dujovne team to urgently seek a way to contain market concerns. With these dollars, Argentina guarantees its ability to pay in 2019 and, if there are no unforeseen events, the Minister intends to expand this guarantee until the end of 2020. He does not want electoral agitation to play against him.

The Fund has repeatedly reiterated its confidence in the program, one of the keys to achieving a balanced budget this year. This is an ambitious goal in the midst of Macri's re-election campaign and when the economy is not yet showing vital signs.

The negative trend is expected to change in the second quarter and show nascent growth. During his last press conference at the IMF headquarters, the main spokesperson of the agency, Gerry Ricesaid the program to be listening March "on rails" and praised both the results of monetary policy and the "transparent" pattern of Central Bank interventions to contain the dollar in the band of exchange rate expected, or almost.

Inflationary pressures continue and the rate is still high, admits Dujovne. The recalculation of the estimates for 2019, which is now close to 30%, will be integrated by the Fund in the badysis of Argentine variables. This is not the data expected by the agency the last time that it has established its annual projections for the country, but the country's technicians also consider that the fall of two figures, after touching the 50 points of 2018, "is very important", as pointed out Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF department for the Western Hemisphere, a few days ago.