November 20, 2023
IMF director welcomes Melei with open arms
After the defeat of Massa, the candidate supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristaina Georgieva, director of the IMF, congratulated on social networks the ultra right-winger elected with 55.6% of the votes. In his speech on Sunday night, Milei had already confirmed that commitments will be fulfilled, in reference to the fraudulent debt with the IMF that strangles the country.
The presidential ballot ended with a landslide victory of the ultra-right-wing Javier Milei (LLA) who, with 55.69% of the votes, won by a wide margin over the Peronist candidate, Sergio Massa, who obtained 44.3% of the votes.
This morning, congratulations came from the real “boss”, the Director of the International Monetary Fund.
In her post Goergieva confirmed that they look forward to working together with Milei and his team in the coming period to “develop and implement a sound plan to safeguard macroeconomic stability and strengthen inclusive growth for all Argentines.”
Much of the message coming from the ballot box was an angry vote in the face of social unrest, material deterioration with loss of wages, pensions and increasing poverty. To continue tied to the conditions of the IMF to pay an odious debt, will only deepen this path of impoverishment for large sectors of Argentine society with attacks on wages and rights won in labor and social struggles.
The numbers are there for all to see, the Congressional Budget Office published that primary spending was reduced by 4.3% in real terms in the ten months of 2023. These cuts were mostly in Energy subsidies, Family Allowances, Retirement and Pensions and Social Programs, among others.
While Peronism closes an administration at the service of the IMF and adjusting the popular sectors, Milei promises that his will be even greater. With negative reserves, the maturity of foreign debt from December to February is US$ 7,200 million. The pressure from the IMF and other creditors to collect their debts will be strong.
One of the first reactions in ADR trading on Wall Street shows considerable increases. One of the issues to be defined is how the transition between the current government and the new administration will be. Rumors of the Economy Minister’s departure add pressure and uncertainty, which on Tuesday could be expressed by an increase in the demand for dollars.
The only way out of this crisis that seems to be accelerating has as a necessary step the rupture of the agreement with the Fund and the sovereign disregard of the odious debt.