IMF increases Argentina’s bailout by US$7.1 billion

BUENOS AIRES: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised Argentina’s US$50 billion (RM206.8 billion) credit line to US$57.1 billion to help the country stabilise its economy.

“Argentina has developed a strengthened economic plan that is aimed at bolstering confidence,” IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday at the press conference in New York, which was broadcast live in Buenos Aires.

“At the core of the new plan is a fiscal policy aimed at strengthening its fiscal position and having a sustainable, appropriately financed budget, a strong monetary policy focused on reducing inflation, a floating exchange rate policy without intervention,” she added.

“A central element of the authorities’ plan will be to reach budgetary balance by 2019, one year earlier than previously intended, and to move to a 1% primary surplus in 2020. These decisive steps will reduce the government’s financing needs and bring down public debt,” Lagarde said.

Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said the increase in funds would help to “dissipate any doubts” that financial markets may have about the solidity of the Argentinian economy.

The measure will allow for a faster injection of IMF funds into the economy, which has been hit by the rapid fall of the peso. – dpa