It would be "stupid" to leave Argentina's program now that it works

It would be "stupid" to leave Argentina's program now that it works


The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, stressed on Thursday that "it would be stupid to abandon now" the assistance program to Argentina just "when the best is yet to come".

"It would be stupid to leave now when the best is yet to come (...) It has been hard, and there has been a contraction, but now we have the best days ahead," Lagarde said in an interview with Efe during the spring assembly. of the institution, asked about a hypothetical change of Government after the presidential elections of October.

Lagarde stressed that it is the "largest program in the history of the IMF."

At the end of 2018, in fact, the IMF approved to extend the financial assistance requested by the government of President Mauricio Macri to 56.3 billion dollars (from the 50,000 approved in June).

"The Argentine program has been negotiated, and is solidly under the control of the authorities, and in fact is paying off, we are beginning to see in terms of current account, which is how the country relates to the rest of the world, and deficit , a significant improvement, "he said.

"It has been hard, and there has been a contraction, these two weak pillars of the Argentine economy are now being reinforced, in fact Argentina is taking off from the bottom as we see how the program begins to work," he said.

Lagarde remarked, in this sense, that the institution is not asking for "an additional adjustment" to the Argentine authorities.

In its latest forecasts, released this Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut the contraction expected in Argentina to 1.2% for 2019, compared to 1.7% calculated three months ago, while worsened the forecast of inflation up to 30% at the end of the year.

After the third review, last week, the agency approved a new disbursement for some 10.800 million dollars for Argentina.

The words of Lagarde take place at the beginning of the body's spring assembly and the World Bank (WB), which brings together in the US capital the world economic leaders of its 189 member countries and that will last until the weekend.

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