ARGENTINA: REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND ARRIVE IN BUENOS AIRES TO DISCUSS THE NATION'S MULTILATERAL DEBTS

Record ID: 645646

  • Title: ARGENTINA: REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND ARRIVE IN BUENOS AIRES TO DISCUSS THE NATION'S MULTILATERAL DEBTS
  • Date: 8th January 2003
  • Summary: (U7) BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (JANUARY 09, 2003) (REUTERS) SV/SLV F;AG/ OF EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: International Relations,Finance
  • Reuters ID: LVA3PTWXRRW2G803S6533ALUYIH7
  • Story Text: Representatives from the International Monetary Fund have arrived in Buenos Aires to discuss an accord to reschedule the nation's multilateral debts.
    With a possible billion dollar default only a week away, an IMF mission arrived in Argentina on Thursday (January 09) as optimism grew it would finally agree to reschedule the bankrupt nation's multilateral debts.
    An International Monetary Fund team headed by John Dodsworth was met at Buenos Aires airport by dozens of protesters who blame the multilateral lending agency for the nation's deepest ever recession.
    "They are not welcomed - they cannot come here. Argentina can live without the IMF, so please don't lend us anymore because for each peso they lend us, they take three," said protester Roberto Perdia, a former leftist guerrilla leader from the 1970s.
    Dodsworth, the deputy head of the western hemisphere department, made no comment on arrival, but was due to met with Economy Ministry officials on Thursday.
    The government, with IMF aid suspended a year ago amid uncontrolled state spending, said it was optimistic a deal could be reached. Sources say the IMF will effectively rollover $5 billion in debts due through June, but there will be no new financing.
    Argentina, which last year defaulted on $95 billion in private debt and an $800 million World Bank loan, faces a $1 billion debt deadline with the IMF on Jan. 17.
    While earlier defaults made Argentina an international pariah, an IMF default would cut Argentina from its last remaining source of international financing and put the country in the the same league as Sudan and Iran.
    "This accord, for us, is to put us back onto the international stage. Argentina is the only important country in the world that is outside of this group that unites the most important countries of the world," said President Eduardo Duhalde on Wednesday (January 08).
    A short term accord would give Argentina breathing space, according to analysts, while a new government is due to take power in May following presidential elections the previous month.
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