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The government's strategy before the Monetary Fund
Clarin
August 13, 2010

Alfredo Mac Laughlin, new Argentine delegate to the international organization, will have to reach an agreement that allows for beginning negotiations with the Paris Club.

By Marcelo Bonelli

Alfredo Mac Laughlin will have a central and primordial task as representative to the IMF: to quickly initiate a negotiation to make an agreement with the Paris Club.

The new Argentine delegate in Washington was designated to the IMF with a concrete goal: to get a traditional "waiver" or a heterodox agreement to make viable and normalize the debt in default that Argentina has with developed countries for US$7 billion. Mac Laughlin will take office in September, but Clarin confirmed that he was in Washington at the beginning of August, initiating informal outreach with the powers that be of the IMF. First, he met with Anoop Singh today dedicated to auditing Asia and after he spoke with his successor as Director for the Western Hemisphere, Nicol s Eyzaguirre. But the central meeting was with the IMF vice president and the man from the U.S. Treasury, put in place to control Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The meeting with John Lipsky the man himself was cordial and cushioned the strong criticism that the Fund's staff makes of the management of Argentina's economic policy.

The team led by Eyzaguirre speaks of strong macroeconomic imbalances in Argentina and warns that they will translate into a growing inflation rate.

They also argue that a "waiver" from the Fund is impossible, so long as the manipulation by Guillermo Moreno of the INDEC exists.

Lipsky backs the criticism, but with Mac Laughlin he opened the possibility of a negotiation with Argentina. Mac Laughlin arrives at the IMF with some advantages. He knows the medium better than any other member of Boudou's team. His previous position in Washington was auspicious: as Finance Secretary to Felisa Miceli, he was the official that negotiated the last Article IV review in Argentina. As Clarin reported, the financier arrived in the job after Cristina Kirchner vetoed two others proposed by Amado Boudou. The minister was unsuccessful in renewing Hector Torres and neither was able to name his liberal colleague from CEMA, Pablo Druck.

Mac Laughlin arrives at the position with a high profile and a substantial difference with other government officials: he has direct relations with Nestor Kirchner and close ties to Julio De Vido. At the IMF and the Paris Club they will ponder this direct link to the Olivos compound. For a while now international bureaucrats and financial experts have sought a direct interlocution with Kirchner to avoid false influences and double talk. Strauss-Kahn suffered that situation with Boudou. In Istanbul, a year ago, the minister promised a negotiation and afterwards he had to retract it by order of an enraged Kirchner. In April, the minister said that he would travel to Washington to reopen the dialogue with the IMF and the reprimand he got from the ex-president obliged him to cancel meetings and spend his time on the golf course.

Now, the decision on which Mac Laughlin centers his task is to repair relations with the Paris Club in some ways displaces Boudou's functions. For that, the minister is spending his time running around without luck still in the polls the province of Buenos Aires and in the Capital. He's also attacking every front with Marco del Pont. In secret meetings with bankers he says that the head of the BCRA's days are numbered and those at the Olivos compound are tired of questioning the pro-development economist. "We've already got it covered," he exclames in intimate meetings with his team, where Beningo Velez and Sergio Chodos participate.

Mac Laughlin also has to overcome the trial by fire abroad: in 2006 he offered an accord to the Paris Club and never could keep his promise.

Since that time there has been a disbelief over payment offers.

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