Wednesday March 29, 2023 | 8:10 p.m.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, held a meeting in Washington with the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gita Gopinath, with whom he evaluated the latest revision of the agreement that was approved two weeks ago by the technical staff of the organization and that will be dealt with in the next few days by the Board of Directors so that the disbursement of around US$ 5,300 million (about 4,000 million SDRs, the IMF currency) can be finalized.
During the meeting, the development of the main economic variables of the last months was discussed, and in particular, the effect of the drought on foreign trade and the measures that are being adopted to avoid over-invoicing of imports and under-invoicing of exports.
In this sense, the last revision of the agreement that the staff approved on March 13 includes a waiver on the accumulation of international reserves this year due to the effect of the drought, on which the amount has not yet been officially reported, since it is awaited the approval of the Board of Directors of the multilateral organization to make those numbers public.
“In the context of the fourth review of the IMF program, we had a good meeting with the agency’s deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, and her team, with whom we analyzed the impact of the drought in the country and the clearance of the expiration dates of the curve in pesos”, said Massa after the meeting.
Along these lines, the minister pointed out that the IMF executives agreed to support “the government’s decision to continue advancing with measures that promote the increase in exports with the aim of strengthening reserves.”
For his part, Gopinath also highlighted the “good meeting” he had with Argentine officials.
“The fourth review of the program, the severe impact of the drought and the importance of actions to increase reserves and continue mobilizing internal financing in a sustainable manner were discussed,” Gopinath said on his Twitter account.
Together with Massa were the head of Advisors of the Palacio de Hacienda, Leonardo Madcur; the head of the General Directorate of Customs, Guillermo Michel; and Santiago García Vázquez, head of communication for the portfolio.
Another of the issues that were discussed at the meeting were the judicial injunctions for the importation of products that, after having exceeded US$2.6 billion, were losing volume until reaching the figure of US$23 million today.
In the meeting, Michel evaluated the operation of the control actions of the over and under-invoicing maneuvers, something on which the technical staff of the IMF put the magnifying glass.
In his presentation, the head of Customs also underlined the evolution of control actions and highlighted the operation of the area of external valuation control.
As regards Massa’s agenda in the US, a meeting with State Department officials is scheduled for tomorrow. To which could also be added a meeting with the World Bank.
Massa accompanied President Alberto Fernández in the meeting he held at the White House with his US counterpart, Joseph Biden.
