{"id":166627,"date":"2022-03-03T15:23:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T07:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=166627"},"modified":"2022-03-03T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T07:23:41","slug":"argentine-president-says-imf-deal-being-fine-tuned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=166627","title":{"rendered":"Argentine president says IMF deal being fine-tuned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\u201cIt<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BUENOS AIRES, March 3 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez said his country was still fine-tuning details of an agreement with The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the repayment of a US $ 44 bn loan taken during the Mauricio Macri administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez’s remarks came during the traditional opening of each year’s Legislature. \u201cEven today we are still negotiating aspects related to the formalization of that agreement, which I hope to conclude shortly,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs of this week, we hope that it will be in the hands of lawmakers to consider the approval of the agreement that is reached with the IMF staff,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month ago, Fern\u00e1ndez had announced a preliminary agreement with the IMF, which would allow Argentina to refinance the 2018 stand-by loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez has long insisted the new agreement would not entail greater sacrifices and ruled out a labor or pension reform. But the final wording is yet to be penned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the global context in which we live and taking into account the magnitude of the commitments that Argentina assumed, and that we seek to modify, defending the rights of our people demands much more than five minutes,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez justified after months of negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding subsidies to utilities, Fern\u00e1ndez announced they will be reduced gradually. He also promised bills will not rise above salary increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez’s center-left government lacks an absolute majority in houses of Congress, which needs to approve the deal with the Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina is reportedly seeking a new agreement with extended maturities from 2026 to 2034, for which it would be required to cut down its fiscal deficit from 3% of GDP to 0.9% in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the current agreement, Argentina should pay some US $ 18 bn this year and US$19 bn in 2023, which seems impossible to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInflation is the big problem that Argentine men and women have at this time and, without a doubt, it is also the main concern and the main challenge of the Government,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez reckoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President also praised the role of industrial developments in the post-pandemic economic recovery the country is going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the deal with the IMF, Fern\u00e1ndez stressed that \u201cwithout an agreement, we will not be able to help build certainty; the agreement that we announced weeks ago on the framework of economic policies is the best agreement that the government of Argentina could achieve.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez also vowed to \u201dboost production and exports to generate employment, improve income, generate foreign currencies and lower inflation. It is not about exporting at the expense of the domestic market; it is about exporting to improve the lives of Argentines,\u201d he stressed. — NNN-MERCOPRESS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BUENOS AIRES, March 3 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez said his country was still fine-tuning details of an agreement with The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the repayment of a US $ 44 bn loan taken during the Mauricio Macri administration. Fern\u00e1ndez’s remarks came during the traditional opening of each year’s Legislature. \u201cEven today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":166628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=166627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166629,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166627\/revisions\/166629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/166628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=166627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=166627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=166627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}