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News > Latin America

Argentina Reached An Agreement With The IMF To Pay Its Debt

  • Argentine workers protesting against IMF conditionalities.

    Argentine workers protesting against IMF conditionalities. | Photo: Twitter/ @PortalDiarioAR

Published 28 January 2022
Opinion

"This deal does not condition us. We will be able to exercise our sovereignty and carry out our growth, development, and social justice policies," President Alberto Fernandez stressed.

On Friday, President Alberto Fernandez announced that Argentina reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance a USD44 billion loan contracted during President Mauricio Macri's administration (2015-2019).

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"Without an agreement, we had no future horizon. With this agreement, we can order the present and build a future. Compared to other deals Argentina signed before, this agreement does not include restrictions to delay our development," Fernandez said.

This IMF agreement comes after months of intense negotiations and amid a macroeconomic crisis characterized by the fall of the monetary reserve, high inflation, and devaluation of the national currency.

In order for the agreement to enter into force, Fernandez will send the text to Congress, where his party has the largest number of legislators but does not have an absolute majority. He stressed that the IMF agreement does not require his government to reduce investments in social projects or in science and technology as a way to to achieve fiscal balance.

"Furthermore, we will be able to access new financing... This deal expects to sustain the economic recovery that has already started," the Argentine president said, explaining that the IMF agreement even contemplates an increase in public infrastructure investments.

"This agreement does not condition us. We will be able to exercise our sovereignty and carry out our growth, development, and social justice policies. It is an agreement based on the confidence that the world has in our capabilities. We must grow to be able to pay," Fernandez stressed.

The IMF agreement occurs precisely in a week in which this South American nation would have had to pay some US$1.1 billion in service on an illegitimate and damaging debt. Previously, during his presidential term, Macri accepted an IMF agreement that required Argentina to pay US$3.5 billion in 2021, US$18 billion in 2022, and US$19 billion in 2023. 

"It is the most brutal debt... It was signed by Macri, who broke up the country and condemned Argentines to eternal poverty," the poet Eduardo Dalter said at the time.

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