The IMF stated on Monday it will rise talks with the government of crisis-ravaged Argentina on a new rescue package in mid-November.
A crew from the Washington-based crisis lender IMF met with administrators in Buenos Aires in current days to address the country’s difficulties amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including debt owed to the fund, and to “exchange views on how best to address them,” the IMF stated in a statement.
“IMF staff will continue to engage closely with the authorities. Staff plans to return to Buenos Aires in mid-November to initiate discussions on a new IMF-supported program,” the statement declared.
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the South American nation was facing a critical economic crisis despite massive IMF lending in recent years, and the fund announced the Covid-19 crisis increased previously high unemployment and poverty rates.
Buenos Aires is hoping to renegotiate compensations on a $44 billion loan from the IMF in 2018.
It was basically meant to be $57 billion, but President Alberto Fernandez stopped disbursements when he took office in December 2019. The first payments are due in September 2021.
“Argentina is facing complex economic and social difficulties, in the context of an unprecedented health crisis,” the IMF stated in a statement.
The crisis-wracked South American country has been in recession since 2018, and its inflation is over 40 percent.
