The alarm came to Washington | Out of program, …

The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund met Friday afternoon to discuss the worsening crisis in Argentina. The exceptional meeting allowed the authorities of the organization to hear an informal report on the country's growing financial fragility.
The presentation was made by the head of the mission, Roberto Cardarelli, who has just returned from Washington to Washington. The presentation did not seek to clarify the doubts about the disbursement of $ 5,400 million, which should be clarified as of September 15, nor to badyze the modification of the proposed financing program to start the Palacio de Hacienda. The aim was to evacuate renewed questions from the IMF authorities. "We remain in close contact with the authorities," they only told the agency at the end of the meeting.

The official program of the IMF's board of directors provided for only one item to be dealt with on Friday: the badessment of Guyana's economy. As expected Page I12
conversations about Caribbean country performance and the reforms suggested by the agency have been eclipsed by Concerns about the economic debacle of its main individual creditor in the Fund. The Fund delegation that landed Thursday in the US capital after an intense five-day tour of Buenos Aires took advantage of the meeting scheduled for Friday to present its badessment of the country. "Staff led by Cardarelli briefed the board of directors on recent events in Argentina. It was an informal briefing, "confirmed the spokespersons of the multilateral agency at this newspaper.

Calling the IMF's board of directors on a Friday afternoon is always a challenge. If the meeting coincides with the beginning of a long weekend in the United States, explain who knows the dynamics of the body, the meeting enters the default zone. The Argentine crisis has however guaranteed that the representatives of the different countries remain until Friday, five o'clock in the afternoon, at the headquarters of the agency. Although they know their privileges – the IMF is guaranteed first place to collect if the financial situation explodes – shareholders and agency officials are worried. This is not just a new and costly failure of renewed austerity programs: Argentina accounts for about half of the IMF's loan portfolio.
In fact, the agency is worth $ 1 out of 3 of debt payments that the next government will have to badume between 2020 and 2023.

"It was an informal meeting to inform as usual in the context of major programs," the Fund said when trying to subtract dramatism. The dynamics proposed for the case of Argentina is similar in times of greater turbulence in Greece. The adventures of the troika on the Hellenic economy came to force the commission to meet on a Saturday. A heresy that the Argentine program, so far, has not claimed.

"The IMF has to take stock, but we have a fiscal and monetary front in order.They can come back, we can leave or they can do it from there," they explained from the Palacio de Hacienda in the middle of the week, referring to the $ 5400 million that is still in doubt. The problem is not the goals of the austerity program, the questions arise because Argentina no longer meets the criteria for accessing a "confirmation agreement for exceptional access". With this diagnosis, the debt restructuring with bond creditors announced Wednesday by Minister Hernán Lacunza is an offer to unlock the sixth tranche of credit.
Resources are expected to enter from September 15, but the dynamics of the last disbursements reveals that the operation usually takes place at least two weeks after the due date due to the bureaucratic process of the agency.