Alberto Fernández asks the countries that are part of the IMF to support Argentina

The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, expressed on Friday his desire that the countries that make up the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) support Argentina in its negotiations for the payment of the debt with the agency.

"To the countries that have a place in the Board of Directors of the Fund and vote, we convey our concern and desire to accompany Argentina's request," the president said in statements to the Argentine media that accompanied him on the trip since last Tuesday He made Israel, where he came to participate with other world leaders in a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.

When detailing some of the aspects of his bilateral meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Fernández said that he transmitted the economic "situation" that his Government inherited when he assumed last December 10, after the four years of management of the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

"Our concern for the debt, our efforts to overcome the problem. And what the prime minister conveyed to me is his entire decision to help us in whatever Israel can," he added.

"Argentina is a country that the previous government virtually left in 'default' (suspension of payments), in a tremendous recession, with very high poverty," he lamented.

For the president, the country needs to recover socially and recover its economic activity, as well as "being able to export and get dollars to, from there, see how to meet debt obligations".

"And for that we have to agree with the creditors and the Fund," he said, referring to the negotiations to deal with the payment of the around 44,000 million dollars that Argentina has already received from the 56,300 to which it amounts. the loan that the IMF approved for Argentina in 2018, at the beginning of the severe recession that still drags.

These statements are given three days after the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, announced a bill that seeks to restore the "sustainability of external public debt" to face negotiations with Argentine debt holders, in the midst of " critical "situation of foreign indebtedness of the country, which amounts to more than 270,000 million dollars.

Regarding the IMF credit, Guzmán reproached, very vehemently, that the "largest loan" given in the history of that organization, in reference to 56.3 billion, was not used to increase Argentina's productive capacity, but to pay debt and finance the "capital outflow".

He also said that in recent weeks Argentina spoke with the IMF in "constructive tone" to try to "re-stream the path of payments" planned until 2023, in order to give "relief" to the country and thus "implement public policies "to establish" a path of virtuous and inclusive development ".

Since the beginning of his term, Fernández and his team have assured that the country is willing to pay the public debt, although insisting that, for this, the national economy must grow again.

In his statements today, the president, who also met with the head of state of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, in Jerusalem, said that at the two-hour lunch he shared with Netanyahu "he was really very pleasant", in which they spoke " of everything that Israel and Argentina have stopped talking about for many years. "

"What are the things we can do together," he said.