Argentina parliament approves IMF deal to restructure $45 billion debt
Argentina Parliament
Argentina'sSenateon Thursday gave final approval to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that restructures a $45billiondebt, clearing the country's short-term financial horizon but leaving a serious inflationary challenge.
The late-night vote greenlights the new credit program ironed out betweenArgentineofficials andIMFstaff as they sought to finalize thedebt, the legacy of a record loan contracted in 2018 under former president Mauricio Macri.
Outside theSenate, several hundred people demonstrated, called by unions and leftist movements to oppose the restructuring.
Last week, the agreement won the approval of theChamber of Deputieswith a broad consensus between the center-left ruling coalition and the center-right opposition, a rarity inArgentina.
Faced with the spectre of a ruinous payment default if the agreement was not approved, theSenategreenlit it by a vote of 56 to 13, with three abstentions.
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"It is the responsibility of our government to build certainty in a context of uncertainty," Economic Minister Martin Guzman, thedeal's chief architect, said in defending the package before senators.
The agreement provides for a series of macroeconomic measures to control the country's chronic inflation (50.9 percent in 2021) and reduce its budget deficit of three percent of GDP last year until it is balanced in 2025.
Under the agreement, which must also be ratified by theIMFboard of directors before it comes into force, the fund will monitorArgentina's progress regularly.
In 2018, under the government of center-right Macri, theIMFapproved its biggest-ever loan of $57billiontoArgentina. The country received $44billionof that amount.
Macri's successor, Alberto Fernandez, refused to accept the rest and sought to renegotiate repayment terms.
Payments of $19billionand $20billionwere due this year -- a timeline the government considered impossible.
Argentinais just emerging from three years of economic recession and battling rising inflation and a high poverty rate.
The country recorded a 4.7 percent jump in its consumer price index in February compared to January, with a 7.5 percent rise in the cost of food.
Under the newdeal-- the 13th that Buenos Aires has signed with theIMFsince the return of democracy in 1983 -- repayments will be made from 2026 to 2034 after a grace period.
Argentinahas committed to reducing its fiscal deficit from 3.0 percent of GDP today to 0.9 percent by 2024.
IMFspokesman Gerry Rice said the aim of thedealwas to "reduce persistently high inflation" but warned of the challenges faced by the global economy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Theparliamentbuilding was fenced off ahead of theSenatevote last week, following protests when the lower house approved the bill, with some demonstrators burning rubbish and throwing stones towards the building entrance.
A police officer was struck by a Molotov cocktail and some windows were hit with stones, including those at the offices of theSenatepresident and Vice President Cristina Kirchner.