Updated at 6:28 PM

Economy Minister Luis Caputo said there’s “no chance” of a currency run because there are “not enough pesos.”

“There’s no way the dollar will jump,” Caputo told LN+ news channel in an interview aired on Sunday night. He said the current monetary scheme “is so robust” that “there can be volatility, but no earthquakes.”

He also revealed that Argentina will request more than 40% of the US$20 billion loan in the initial disbursement since, he argued, the government’s austerity plan means it has already complied with many of the goals the Fund typically sets. The IMF generally pays out 20-30% of the total in the initial disbursement. 

“How much would they have paid when those adjustments are done?” he said. “We’ve already carried them out. It would only be logical for the initial disbursement to be higher.”

During an interview with Reuters on Monday, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva called the request “reasonable,” saying of Argentina that “they’ve earned it, given their performance.”

The Central Bank sold US$1.6 billion in the ten business days through Friday. Caputo denied this was an attempt to contain the exchange rate. “Over the last 10 days there were more imports than exports. We knew perfectly well that this would happen,” he said.

Caputo suggested it was a product of exporters waiting for details of the IMF program before selling.

Caputo repeated the Milei administration’s claims that the IMF deal does not constitute “new” debt. “With the dollars we receive, we can buy back Intransferable Bonds (Letras Intransferibles) issued by the National Treasury. Those dollars then become part of the Central Bank’s reserves, and the reserves are freely available.”

This means that the government plans to use the funds to pay the treasury’s debt to the Central Bank. In this case, the treasury would still have debt, but with the IMF, rather than the Central Bank. However, the claim that the deal is not “new debt” is misleading, because the treasury’s debt would pass from an internal creditor to an external one, and the interest rate would be significantly higher.

The government’s plan, Caputo said, is to “continue buying back reserves and gradually recapitalizing the Central Bank,” which “can be done faster” with IMF money.

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