The program, which is the twenty-second for Argentina since it joined the IMF in 1956, replaces a failed one for 57,000 million in 2018, which was the largest in the history of the organization, assumed by the management of Mauricio Macri.
This concludes a year and a month of negotiations, with the approval of the board of the Extended Facilities agreement negotiated between February 2021 and March 2022. Going forward, the country and the body managed by Kristalina Georgieva will wait for, in the best of cases, 12 years of direct relationship; where during a first stage of 2.5 years the country must complete 10 exams every three months.
In general terms, the board had already given the technical staff the green light last February (before the treatment of the issue in Congress) to close the Extended Facilities negotiations.
In a personal message to the number two of the IMF Gita Gopinath (head of the organization’s technicians) and the action of the North American Julie Kozack and the Venezuelan Luis Cubeddu regarding the bill negotiated with the country, the members of the organization’s board of directors ( in short, where the final power of the Fund lies), they announced to the deputy director for the Western Hemisphere and the person in charge of the mission with the country that their actions up to that moment had been correct, and that they could not hinder the closing end of discussions. And, if there were no surprises, there were also no surprises for the final approval if the papers that reach the board were watermarked and signed by Illan Goldfjan, the IMF’s managing director for the Western Hemisphere, and who will be responsible for compliance with the agreement from Argentina. It will be the Brazilian who organizes and signs (or disapproves) the 10 quarterly exams that the country must comply with so that the first stage of the agreement is considered fulfilled.
The deal is a refinancing of Macri’s debt. In other words, money requested from the Fund to pay the Fund the maturities of that loan and thus improve the profile of net maturities.
It will have 10 reviews and they will be quarterly with disbursements. The payment of the same will be between 2026 and 2034, earning 4 and a half years without sacrificing money from Argentina to pay debt in these two and a half years. The first disbursement from the IMF will be US$9.8 billion.