During their first video conference on Friday, IMF head Kristalina Georgieva and Argentina’s next president-elect Javier Milei talked about the economic problems facing their country.
Since the government of former president Mauricio Macri requested financial assistance in 2018, Argentina and the IMF have maintained a $44 billion credit agreement.
The loan was renegotiated by the departing Alberto Fernandez administration, but Argentina struggled to satisfy the IMF requirements this year because to the severe drought and the recession that followed the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Today I had an excellent conversation with the director of the IMF, @KGeorgieva, in which we talked about the great economic challenge facing our country,” Milei said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I told her about different aspects of our fiscal adjustment plan and our monetary program. The Fund was collaborative in finding the structural solutions that Argentina needs.”
During the campaign, libertarian outsider Milei pledged to significantly reduce public spending as part of a plan that also included dollarizing the Argentine economy and dismantling the national bank.
Later on, he softened some of his language, but it was unclear what his true intentions were.
On X, Georgieva stated that she had talked with Milei on “the decisive policy actions needed and the significant challenges for Argentina’s economy.”
“The IMF is committed to support efforts to durably reduce inflation, improve public finances, and raise private-sector-led growth,” she said.
Argentina’s annual rate of inflation is over 140 percent and 40 percent of the population lives in poverty.
