2024-09-26 09:21:34
The organization finally gave in to the president’s public pressure and attacks against the former Chilean finance minister and removed him from the negotiations with Argentina.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell under public pressure from Javier Milei and finally removed Rodrigo Valdés, director of the Western Hemisphere of the organization, of the negotiations with Argentina.
The announcement was made official by Julie Kozack, Director of Communications for the Fund, who stated that “To support ongoing constructive engagement with Argentine authorities, Western Hemisphere Director Rodrigo Valdés has fully delegated program negotiations to Luis Cubeddu, deputy director of the Western Hemisphere department, and to Ashvin Ahuja, head of the mission in Argentina.”
Supervisory duties will now be assumed by Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Gita Gopinath.
Argentina has had a program in force with the IMF since 2022 that allows it to extend the payment period for its $45 billion debt, where the organization provides resources to the Casa Rosada to meet its financial commitments if it meets fiscal goals.
After Milei managed to accumulate international reserves and achieve a fiscal surplus in the first quarter of the year, The president sought to negotiate a new program to access more resources and to do so he launched harsh public attacks against Rodrigo Valdés.
Javier Milei accused Valdés of having “a clear intention” towards his country, stating that “he does not want Argentina to do well. He has another agenda. We are over-compliant with everyone, but they preferred to support Massa’s disaster. Why did the IMF allow Massa to do everything? We over-delivered everything and they were always putting objections. It endorsed Massa’s entire disaster and now it is doing to us what it did to us.”
Along with this, Milei assured that Michelle Bachelet’s former Finance Minister had links with the Sao Paulo Forum, complaining that “Who knows why the IMF is putting us in a Sao Paulo Forum there. We have exceeded everything and people are always putting objections. The IMF had a set of goals, we set stronger goals and have exceeded ours.”