Buenos Aires Herald 
Luis Caputo, president-elect Javier Milei’s appointed Economy Minister, had his first meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a representative of the new administration.
On Tuesday, Caputo met at the lender’s headquarters in Washington D.C. with its First Deputy Managing Director, Gita Gopinath, who called the encounter “a positive meeting.”
“We discussed the complex challenges facing Argentina and plans for urgently strengthening stability,” Gopinath posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Our teams will remain closely engaged in the period ahead.”
The Director and Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere Department, Rodrigo Valdés and Luis Cubeddu, also participated in the meeting along with mission chief Ashvin Ahuja and Senior Resident Representative Ben Kelmalson.
On Tuesday, Fund director Kristalina Georgieva said the lender is “very keen” to support Argentina and the country could even receive extra financing through its Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST).
Georgieva had a first virtual meeting with Milei on Friday, which she described as a “very constructive engagement, very serious discussion.”
The IMF is a critical actor in the Argentine economy and politics. After former president Mauricio Macri took out a record US$44 billion loan in 2018, President Alberto Fernández’s team renegotiated the deal and reached an extended fund facility program in 2022. The new agreement includes an economic program that Argentina must comply with to receive disbursements every three months, which the government uses to pay the previous debt.
Caputo himself, director of the Central Bank in 2018, is seen as one of the main drivers of that loan. He lasted three months as head of the financial entity, resigning amid a bank run after not seeing eye-to-eye with the lender.
Alejandro Werner, then IMF director of the Western Hemisphere, heavily criticized Caputo’s tenure and added that the lender would probably not extend its financing to Argentina in 2024.
“With his leadership in the Central Bank, the [IMF’s] program wasn’t implemented, which increased confusion while resources from the program were used inappropriately,” Werner said in an interview with the Con Vos radio station. He accused Caputo of having a “disorganized” vision of the monetary policy and the foreign exchange market that hindered the implementation of the program.
Werner also warned that the program’s payment schedule means that Argentina has to pay more money than what it will receive from the Fund, and that the lender could increase the disbursement’s amounts. However, he didn’t think the IMF could provide additional funds.
“I think people should not read too much into the [IMF] communiqués.”
