Between January 30th and February 1st, Argentina paid US$ 1.365 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance the US$ 45-billion loan incurred by the Mauricio Macri administration in 2018 , in accordance with the extended fund facility agreement, reached with the IMF early last year, thus bringing Central Bank reserves down to US$ 41.517 billion. A further sum of US$ 2.538 billion was paid in January, with a timetable of total payments of US$ 20.222 billion in the course of this year. On the last weekend of January, Frente de Todos deputy, Máximo Kirchner, gave an interview in which he called for the renegotiation of the agreement as negative for the Argentine economy. Nevertheless, IMF monitors due here om February, are expected to give the agreement a green light with its 2022 targets met, including a primary fiscal deficit of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product, as against the stipulated 2.5 percent and Central Bank reserves US$ 4 billion ahead of the minimum requirements. This approval would release an IMF remittance of US$ 5.4 billion for the drought-stricken reserves. Economy Minister Sergio Massa would like to see that sum doubled, in order to compensate for the damage inflicted by the war in Ukraine.
SOURCE: www.batimes.com.ar