"It's a discussion, with great intensity, with a great investment and a great will to reach an agreement. It's a negotiation that has its moments, day after day, hour after hour, like these" currently, declared Gabriela Cerruti, the presidential spokesperson, at a press conference.
The government of Alberto Fernandez (center-left) has been in dialogue with the IMF for two years, and more in recent weeks, to renegotiate a debt of 44 billion dollars in total, a legacy of a loan contracted in 2018 by the previous government (Center-right).
In the absence of an agreement with the IMF, Argentina should repay over the next three years, between capital and interest, more than 19 billion dollars in 2022, about the same in 2023, and around 4 billion in 2024. And s Regarding the first deadline of this year, a little over 700 million as of this Friday.
“The payment depends on how the negotiations progress” and it is President Fernandez and the Minister of Economy, Martin Guzman, “who know the exact moment” where these negotiations are, said Ms Cerruti, in response to a question on the likelihood of Argentina honoring or postponing the deadline.
Argentina's debt with the IMF Nicolas RAMALLO AFP
The Argentinian government is insistently asking the IMF for "time" to repay the debt, another schedule of payments, arguing that the deadlines are "unsustainable" for Argentina's reserves.
It also requires time to gradually bring its public deficit back into balance, without stifling the growth which has seen Argentina recover (+10.3% over the first eleven months of 2021), after three years of recession and the impact of Covid-19.
At midday, several hundred people demonstrated in the center of Buenos Aires, to the presidential palace of Casa Rosada, at the call of organizations located to the left of the government, to refuse the repayment of the debt, "a scam, illegitimate and heinous".
"We must suspend all payments. These billions must be destined to solve the country's structural problems," Celeste Fierro, leader of the United Left Front, told AFP.
"We have growing poverty, an economic, social and health crisis, and more than ever we need a sovereign measure, which would be to stop paying for this scam".
© 2022 AFP