BUENOS AIRES.- He Argentine President Javier Milei He again attacked the director of the Western Hemisphere Department of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Valdés, who was accused of acting in collusion with the “Kirchnerism” and with the former Minister of Economy of the previous president Alberto Fernández, Sergio Massaand of “putting objections” to his government.
“There was complicity between the head of the Argentine mission of the IMF and the previous government. Rodrigo Valdés has obvious bad intentions. He doesn’t want Argentina to do well. He has another agenda. We are over-compliant with everyone, but they preferred to support the disaster of (Sergio) Massa. Why did the IMF allow Massa to do everything? We over-comply with everyone and they are always putting objections,” the president questioned during an interview on an Argentine streaming channel.
He added that Valdés “is not my boss, my boss is the Argentine people. It is a decision of the IMF, who knows why the IMF put us in a Sao Paulo Forum there. We over-fulfilled everything and they are always putting objections. The IMF had a set of goals, we set stronger goals and we over-fulfilled ours.”
Valdés is negotiating with Economy Minister Luis Caputo on behalf of the IMF. In the context of the macro agreement with the IMF, Argentina is currently negotiating with the credit agency an additional disbursement of $10 billion to strengthen the reserves of the Argentine Central Bank and open the financial trap.
At the end of June, Milei was in the Czech Republic where, in addition to receiving an award from the Czech Liberal Institute, he took the opportunity to promote economic and military cooperation between Argentina and the European country. In a speech from Prague, Milei accused Valdés of “turning a blind eye” on some aspects of the Argentine economy and linked the IMF member with the Sao Paulo Forum.
However, Valdés was backed by the IMF’s board of directors and its managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
“It is important to note that the Managing Director (Kristalina Georgieva) has full confidence in Rodrigo Valdez and his entire senior leadership team,” said Julie Kozack, IMF spokesperson.
Minister Caputo has stated that the relationship between the government and the IMF “is very good.” “When we told the Fund about the monetary program, it was welcomed and approved within 48 hours. It must be a record for the Fund. We are just beginning to talk about the new agreement; September seems too short, because the agreements take a little longer. But it will certainly be this year. A new agreement could mean fresh funds, but we are not at that point yet. It depends on the structure of the program.”
Kosack, for his part, said there was “no specific timeline for those discussions.”
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from Infobae / La Nación
