First modification:
After some 14 hours of debate, with 202 votes in favor, 37 against and 13 abstentions, the congressmen approved the bill that gives wings to the administration of Alberto Fernández to agree on an economic program with the International Monetary Fund that allows refinancing the debt contracted in 2018, under the government of Mauricio Macri, and which amounts to about 45,000 million dollars.
Despite the fact that both the deputies of Together for Change, a political coalition led by Mauricio Macri that supported the agreement, and those aligned with President Alberto Fernández agreed that the country would be left in a very serious situation in the absence of a pact, both blocs questioned the policies that should be applied from it.
With 202 affirmative votes, 37 negative and 13 abstentions, the bill that approves the public credit operations of the Extended Facilities Program arrived with the International Monetary Fund obtained half sanction.#JoiningVoices🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/EwHsZarHQV
– Deputies Argentina (@DiputadosAR) March 11, 2022
The pact, reached on March 3 after the signing of a basic commitment of principles, has always been one of the objectives of President Alberto Fernández in economic matters since he took office.
This required nearly 19 months of negotiations between government representatives, led by Economy Minister Martín Guzmán, and the staff appointed by the IMF to carry out the talks.
Prior to the pact, Argentina had to pay the sum of 19,000 million dollars this year and a similar amount next year, sums that exceed the value of the nation’s international reserves.
The initiative authorizes the Executive to carry out credit operations with the International Monetary Fund to face maturities with the organization between 2022 and 2024 derived from the ‘stand by’ agreement signed in 2018 by then President Mauricio Macri.
On the other hand, the program is subject to Argentina approving the quarterly evaluations for the next two and a half years, while it will be aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit, balancing public accounts in 2025 and controlling inflation.
“In addition, the program will include elements to enhance growth and resilience through policies to mobilize domestic savings, further strengthen governance and transparency, and promote labor, gender and financial inclusion. Measures will also be taken to encourage investment and promote the sustainability and efficiency of strategic economic sectors, including energy,” reads part of the IMF statement.
An agreement voted amid intense protests
Prior to the session in the Chamber of Deputies, a group of citizens demonstrated outside Congress to reject the agreement with the IMF.
For Argentines, these types of negotiations generate deep fear because they blame the organization’s policies for the serious economic crisis that the nation suffered and which reached its climax in 2001.
“Congress is acting as a notary to ratify this agreement. This is an agreement that truly means handing over, adjusting and submitting the country. And when we say the country, in reality, we refer to the workers, the popular sectors, the marginal neighborhoods and the people from below who will be affected for many years,” said Guillermo Pacagnini, general secretary of the Trade Union Association of Health Professionals of the province of Buenos Aires.
The demonstration turned violent as participants clashed with law enforcement officers trying to restore order.
For many specialists, the cause of the population’s discomfort lies, in part, in the fact that the new program to achieve a gradual reduction in the fiscal deficit establishes that the nation must set cuts in energy subsidies and increases in gas and electricity rates.
With EFE and Reuters
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