International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Kristalina Georgieva described a 75-minute meeting with President Javier Milei on Sunday as “excellent” and told press afterward that the Fund is going full speed ahead on negotiating a new deal with Argentina. 

“Excellent meeting with President Milei amid Argentina’s remarkable transformation — deficit wiped out, inflation down, and growth rebounding with strong prospects ahead. We are working toward a new program to support a vibrant economy for the prosperity of the Argentine people,” the Fund’s director wrote on X. 

IMF technical staff will visit Buenos Aires next week, Georgieva said in Milei’s hotel lobby, where the meeting took place. Such visits can mean laying the groundwork for a new deal. “We would like to work expeditiously on a new program and take it to our board,” she said.

The meeting, which happened at 3 p.m. Argentina time, followed two favorable economic reports this week by the World Bank and the Fund itself. Both predict a 5% growth in the country’s GDP in 2025 after an estimated 2.8% contraction in 2024. 

“Regional growth is projected to rise to 2.5 percent in 2025 and 2.6 percent in 2026, primarily driven by Argentina’s recovery following two years of economic contraction,” said the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, published on Friday. Key sectors driving Argentina’s growth included agriculture, energy, and mining, “supported by macroeconomic stability and newly enacted business-friendly legislation,” according to the report.

Meanwhile, the IMF updated its World Economic Outlook report this week, in which it maintained its 2025 forecast of 5% growth and notched its 2026 prediction up, also to 5%. That would make Argentina one of the fastest-growing major economies, following an estimated 2.8% contraction in 2024. 

“We are seeing a significant turnaround for Argentina’s economy in 2025 compared to 2024. The government put in place very contractionary fiscal measures with about 5% of GDP fiscal contraction. So what we’re seeing now is the economy’s real GDP rebounding,” said Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s Economic Counsellor and the Director of Research, in a press briefing. 

Gourinchas highlighted the drastic reduction of Argentina’s inflation rate in 2024 but did not comment on the ongoing discussions between the country and the Fund.

The country signed an Extended Fund Facility agreement with the IMF in 2022, when Alberto Fernández’s administration renegotiated the US$44-billion debt former President Mauricio Macri acquired in 2018. 

The 2022 Extended Fund Facility was designed to aid Argentina in meeting its payments. It comes with an economic program the country must comply with to get disbursements from the Fund every three months. Those disbursements were then used to pay Argentina’s previous debt with the IMF. 

After several government announcements about a possible new deal last year, IMF Spokeswoman Julie Kozack confirmed in December that Argentina had formally requested a new program and negotiations were under way.

Meeting Georgieva was a high priority on Milei’s agenda on his first international trip of 2025, and the president is set to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. This U.S. trip — his eighth since taking office in December 2023 — concludes on Tuesday, when he will head to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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