Now that Argentina has gone bankrupt, Finance Minister Martín Guzmán is pushing for a deal by May with the International Monetary Fund to repay $ 44 billion in debt. To win the IMF’s agreement, it will narrow a gaping budget gap, he said in an interview on Friday.
It is the traditional path that Argentina, which has defaulted nine times on public debt, has taken as its economy hit rock bottom, as it is now during a punishing pandemic that led to a 10% economic contraction in 2020. But Mr Guzmán said his plan does not comply with draconian austerity measures imposed by the IMF with other governments.
“We are using the negotiations with the IMF as an opportunity to try to break the patterns of the past,” said Mr. Guzmán, an economist trained at Columbia University.
The twist this time around is that Mr Guzmán and President Alberto Fernández are both members of a party that has long raged against the IMF and blames it for Argentina’s troubles. And they are facing a formidable adversary within the ruling Peronist coalition that is drawing lawmakers against the IMF’s policy of tightening the belt.
Vice President Cristina Kirchner, leader of a far-left faction, is calling for vigorous state intervention and government spending to preserve the purchasing power of Argentine workers, a policy that marked her two terms as president.