Argentina's debt "unsustainable", says IMF

Text by: Patricia Lecompte

After an eight-day audit, members of the IMF technical mission concluded that Argentina's debt was "unsustainable", despite the efforts of the Argentine government to contain the economic crisis.

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The IMF's conclusion joins the analysis of the new Argentine president, the center-left peronist Alberto Fernandez . Two months after taking office, he announced that his country's debt was not repayable as it stood. He asked for the renegotiation of the loan obtained in 2018 by his predecessor, the liberal Mauricio Macri, from the IMF. A loan of 57 billion dollars, the largest ever made by the financial institution.

Argentina owes another $ 44 billion to the IMF, plus another $ 151 billion already on loan from private creditors.

In total, the amount of its public debt is abysmal: more than 311 billion dollars, or more than 90% of its GDP. President Alberto Fernandez hopes to renegotiate $ 195 billion of his foreign debt.

Severe crisis

For two years, Argentina has been in recession. A quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and the peso has depreciated by more than 40% in the past seven months.

Faced with the country's economic emergency, the IMF considers that additional efforts are necessary to reduce inflation and calls for the contribution of private investors to " help restore debt sustainability ". But the financial institution does not plan for the moment to review the conditions of its loan.

► Read also: Will the IMF help Argentina avoid a new default?

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• Argentina
• IMF
• Alberto Fernandez

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