Argentina: Lawmakers Approved Deal With IMF

On Friday, Argentine lawmakers from the Lower House approved a deal with the International Monetary Fund to restructure a debt of 45 billion dollars.

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According to Sergio Massa, Lower House Speaker, the agreement was approved with 204 votes in favor, 37 against, and 11 abstentions, obtaining an affirmative result and will be communicated to the honorable Senate."
 
The Deal's details of the preliminary accord, reached in January, were upgraded with the collaboration of the Argentine lawmakers and the IMF personnel. Carlos Heller, Frente de Todos coalition lawmaker, considers "this is the best refinancing agreement that could be achieved."

He highlighted that rejection of the proposal presented to the Lower House "would lead us into serious problems that we must avoid at all costs" because of the biggest-ever loan of 57 billion Dollars the IMF approved for Argentina, during the Administration of Former President Mauricio Macri.

From the total amount of the loan, Argentina has only received 44 billion dollars. Alberto Fernandez, the successor of Macri, refused to take the rest of the amount approved to renegotiate the payment aspects.

With the deadline for this year, payments of 19 billion and 20 billion dollars should have been carried out, something impossible according to the government given the three years of economic recession and battling rising inflation and a high poverty rate the country has faced.