Argentina’s President-Elect Fernández Insists, We Will Take No More Money from IMF

Nov. 28, 2019 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the “Con Vos” radio program, reported by Ambito Financiero Nov. 26, Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernández said he won’t accept the $11 billion in remaining tranches of the $57 billion standby loan that President Mauricio Macri signed with IMF in 2018.

In any new agreement with the IMF, he said,

“the first rule is to stop asking for money.... I won’t sign any deal we can’t comply with. Macri already did that.... If you have a problem because you are highly indebted, the solution isn’t to take on more debt. I have a problem and I’m going to ask for $11 billion in more debt? It’s like the guy who drank too much, and he’s a little bit drunk. The solution isn’t to keep on drinking; the solution is to stop.”

Fernández, who will be sworn in as President on Dec. 10, along with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as Vice President, emphasized that that rather than leaving the country with a solid basis for development, Macri “is leaving us with many problems. Indebted families are part of the legacy he’s leaving.” Fernández pointed out that Macri had imposed such harsh austerity, that the country now has a shortage of vaccine, so that preventable diseases such as chickenpox, measles, and TB are reappearing. “That is evidence of a certain disdain” for your fellow man, he revealed, “where people are seen as just numbers.” The economy has been paralyzed for two years, with declining consumption, he warned. “We have to produce once again, offer credit to reactivate production, give money to retirees so they can consume.”

In four years, Macri increased foreign debt by $100 billion—with nothing to show for it except a crisis-wracked economy and beaten-down population. Full 98% of that $100 billion left the country in the form of capital flight.