By Simon Jessop and Karin Strohecker
LONDON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund is “very interested” in Argentina and the country could be a candidate for investment through its Resilience and Sustainability Fund (RST), the Fund’s head Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday.
Georgieva is expected to meet personally with Argentine President-elect Javier Milei at her stopover in Washington on Tuesday. This follows a first virtual meeting between Milei and the Fund on Friday, which Georgieva described as a “very constructive engagement and a very serious discussion. “
“Let’s see how the engagement goes – but good promising first step,” Georgieva told Reuters.
“The most important way Argentina can help itself is by addressing the macroeconomic imbalances that have accumulated. But then again, we are very keen to support Argentina, address the deep problem of inflation, create an environment for private sector-led growth that can perk up employment and the economy overall.”
Milei won a stronger-than-expected election victory and is set to take command of South America’s second-largest economy on Dec. 10, which has been mired in a severe crisis that has caused inflation to jump above 140% and reserves to sink deeply. red.
Georgieva said she wanted to talk about how Argentina could be less vulnerable to weather events.
“They have very significant structural disorders that the fund can solve, as well as very significant adaptation problems,” such as a drought.
Having a permanent program is a prerequisite for being able to take advantage of the Fund’s RST vehicle, which helps vulnerable and middle-income island countries and provides access to low-interest loans to some 140 countries.
It is unclear to what extent Argentina’s eventual use of the RST would be affected by the IMF’s $44 billion program (the Fund’s largest) that appears to have been derailed and exhausted by September 2024.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Simon Jessop in London; editing by David Gregorio)
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