IMF says Argentina will get next installment of bailout

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The International Monetary Fund, Argentina’s biggest creditor, agreed Monday to release the next tranche of loans due under a bailout program, endorsing government austerity measures so severe they even surpass the terms of its $43 billion loan.

The IMF deal follows the completion of its review of Argentina’s compliance record and confirms the next $792 million payment will become available to the government in June, reassuring markets and boosting confidence among bankers about Argentina’s prospects as it goes through its worst economic crisis in two decades.

The decision by the fund’s technical staff still requires final approval from the IMF’s executive board, which could take weeks.

Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 287% in March, among the highest in the world, deepening poverty and spurring strikes and protests. But the IMF praised President

Javier Milei’s libertarian government for a number of economic successes — Argentina’s first quarterly fiscal surplus in 16 years, falling monthly inflation and surging sovereign bond prices.

To overhaul the beleaguered economy, Milei has slashed public sector wages, eliminated thousands of state jobs, frozen public works projects and and cut subsidies. He has also devalued the nosediving peso currency by more than 50%, helping it stabilize but causing the prices of basic goods to skyrocket.