- The Brazilian Report
- Posts
- 📉 Another IMF program bites the dust
📉 Another IMF program bites the dust
The International Monetary Fund reflects on its latest billion-dollar deal with Argentina. And Ecuador’s interim presidential merry-go-round.
Hello, and welcome to the LatAm Report, your pulse on Latin America’s power plays and economics. If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach us at [email protected]
IMF report slams another failed Argentina program
Few letters make Latin Americans cringe more than I-M-F: the International Monetary Fund. Photo: Matias Lynch/Shutterstock
Like an eternally feuding couple in an on-again, off-again relationship, Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have fought many times, only to try to reconcile shortly after.
Driving the news. In its latest report, the fund takes a critical look at its last deal with the country, a 2022 reprogramming of USD 35 billion in debt that did not go as planned — par for the course in its decades-long partnership with Argentina.
👉 Why it matters. From left to right, many in Argentina blamed the IMF for the country’s 2001 financial crisis. Still, both sides came together in 2018 when center-right President Mauricio Macri was granted the largest loan in the fund’s history (USD 44 billion) amid another debt and currency crisis.
Argentina’s current economy minister, Luis Caputo, who was then working as Macri’s central banker, auctioned part of those loans in a failed attempt to stop a run against the Argentine peso, and the country has struggled to repay the debt since.
🌎 LatAm Report
Twice a week, this newsletter delivers expert analysis of Latin America’s political, business and social trends.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.
This subscription also gets you:
- • 🌞 Brazil Daily
- • 🚜 Brazil Agro
- • 💼 Brazil Business
- • 🌳 Brazil Climate
- • 💬 Brazil Society
- • ⚽ Brazil Sports