The government of Javier Miley has made the decision to unify the payment of the maturities corresponding to the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (FMI) by the end of April, totaling an amount of US$ 1,940 million. The objective is to take advantage of the time to accumulate more reserves in the Central Bank and wait for the field to advance in the liquidation of the harvest.
The administration headed by Javier Milei has chosen to make this payment on the last day of the current month. According to agency data THATthis decision comes shortly after the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputowill travel to Washington, United States, to participate in the spring meeting of the international organization, seeking to establish a new understanding.
Although the original maturity calendar contemplated several dates, the Government has exercised its right to postpone the transfers until the end of April. It should be noted that this approach of delaying payments at the end of the month was previously used by former Economy Minister Sergio Massa during his tenure.
The US$1.94 billion covers the three payments scheduled for April and marks the first disbursement of funds to the IMF since January of this year.. In addition, the Government will have to face another financial commitment at the beginning of May, with a scheduled payment of US$ 857 million for day 1.
The Milei Government demands that the IMF lower the interest on the debt
Due to the increase in rates in recent years, Argentina faces the obligation to pay interest for a total of US$ 3.4 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the year 2024. This interest rate stands at 4. 1%, but in addition, the IMF imposes an additional surcharge of 4 percentage points due to the excess of certain limits established by the US$ 44 billion credit granted during Mauricio Macri’s administration in 2018.
Consequently, if the IMF decided to eliminate this surcharge, the Argentine Government could potentially reduce its interest expenses this year by approximately US$ 1 billion, which represents almost 30% of the total interest payable. The international organization is against lowering the surcharge on emerging countries, because it represents almost half of their income, that is, the IMF would gain half if it decides to listen to Argentina.
