Facundo Iglesia 
A delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Argentina on Thursday to renegotiate the lender’s deal with the country, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said in his daily press conference on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the lender confirmed the visit to the Herald, adding that the team will be led by Luis Cubeddu and Ashvin Ahuja, Assistant Director and Advisor of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department respectively.
Adorni said that Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse and Economy Minister Luis Caputo will receive the Fund’s delegation. Adorni said the visit aims to renegotiate Argentina’s deal with the lender, “since it has not been fulfilled and has virtually fallen through.”
According to the IMF, the goal of the visit is to “continue negotiations on the seventh review of the IMF-supported program.” The Fund also confirmed the government will pool the payments due in January — close to US$2 billion — and pay them by the end of the month.
“Our objective remains to support ongoing efforts to restore macroeconomic stability for the benefit of Argentina and its people,” the IMF added.
The Fund returned as a key player in the country’s economy when former president Mauricio Macri signed a record-high loan of US$44 billion in 2018 with the lender. The debt was renegotiated under President Alberto Fernández’s administration, agreeing to an Extended Fund Facility program. This includes a comprehensive economic program that Argentina must comply with to receive disbursements every three months, which the government uses to pay the previous debt.
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However, most of the goals were missed throughout 2023. In its fifth and sixth reviews of the program, the IMF’s board said that net international reserve accumulation was about US$11 billion below the agreed-upon goal. That report — the last one published during Fernández’s administration — concluded that the program had gone “off track” and added that the country did not comply with its fiscal deficit goal either.
Moreover, in September, the lender’s spokesperson Julie Kozack criticized some measures the Argentine government had taken saying they added to the country’s challenges. Those measures included a VAT refund for basic goods and credits, preferential interest rates, and a series of bonuses and tax reliefs for workers and the unemployed.
For the seventh review, the IMF will evaluate the period in which those measures were adopted. However, it has welcomed Javier Milei’s steep devaluation and austerity measures as “bold initial actions,” according to the lender’s head Kristalina Georgieva.
Before taking office, Milei and his top officials approached the IMF for fresh funding during a trip to Washington, but they have not secured any new financing to date. Caputo’s consulting firm, Anker Latinoamérica, suggested in May that the IMF could partly finance a dollarization program.
“Based on our experience in the public sector, we believe it is possible, and even feasible, in a new renegotiation and agreement with the IMF, the contribution of fresh funds for between US$10 and US$ 15 billion,” the report said.
However, Caputo denied that he had asked the lender for such an amount in a Christmas post on X.
