IMF deputy director meets Mili amid tight adjustment in Argentina

Argentine President Javier Mille received International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath at Government House this Thursday, who described the meeting with the president as “excellent”. Social

Gopinath wrote on his X social network account after the meeting at the end of a two-day trip to Argentina, “Great and important meeting with President Javier Mili in the best way to advance the country.”

The reason for the trip was to “meet with government officials and other individuals to learn about Argentina's difficult economic and social challenges and its enormous potential,” IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozak described in X.

During his visit, Argentina was paralyzed by a one-day rail strike on Wednesday and Argentina's main union, the CGT, was debating whether to organize a second national strike after a 12-hour strike it called on January 24.

Gopinath held meetings with CEO Nicholas Bose; Interior Minister, Guillermo Francos; Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Central Bank President Santiago Bausili.

“I have had constructive talks with Caputo, Pausili and Bosse about efforts to restore macroeconomic stability, protect the vulnerable and strengthen growth prospects in Argentina,” the IMF official posted on Wednesday X.

In 2018, under the leadership of right-wing Mauricio Macri, Argentina borrowed $57 billion from the fund, of which it received $44 billion. The debt program was renegotiated by Peronist Alberto Fernández (centre-left) in 2022, and after failing to meet targets in 2023, it was revived by the current government.

Milei undertook a stronger fiscal adjustment than the IMF recommended, pledging to end 2024 with a general fiscal surplus of 3% of GDP.

The government was able to show the IMF two results of its adjustment policy: a trade surplus of $797 million and a fiscal surplus of $588 million in January, the first in 12 years.

The IMF praised Milei's “ambitious stabilization plan” in recognizing recent inflation for Argentina, with annual inflation of 254.2%, poverty reaching half of the population, and a GDP contraction of 2.8% for 2024.

AFP