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The government asks for changes in IMF audits and wants to negotiate them in Washington
El Cronista
September 09, 2010

By Juan Cerruti

There is official interest in a breakthrough in the relationship with the IMF, to move ahead with the Paris Club. But Argentina is asking for more flexibility. In 20 days they are meeting in Washington.

There is no interest from the Argentine government in going back to having a relationship with the IMF. Nor is there a need for fresh funds. But the distance with the organization led by Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears ever more like an unsolvable hurdle to move forward on another issue that does keep the Casa Rosada awake: the default with the Paris Club.

The government yesterday went back to insisting that it has not changed its position on the Fund. Under current conditions, there is no chance that they will allow the arrival of a mission from the organization to hold the annual review of the economic numbers (blocked since four years ago) that is stipulated in Article IV of the IMF bylaws. However, there is interest on the Argentine side to sit down and negotiate. The moves at the Economy Ministry that is led by Amado Boudou point toward insisting on reforms at the Fund, which would allow not an audit, but a remission of official data about the course of the economy.

They argue at the Palacio de Hacienda that currently Argentina's numbers are even better than many of those in the G-20. While paradoxically, it's the only nation of this group that doesn't have a review of its accounts.

This was the message that was given by Finance Secretary Hernan Lorenzino and Economy Ministry cabinet chief Guido Forcieri during the meeting of the G-20 which they participated in this week in Seoul, South Korea. They will go back to meeting with their counterparts in 20 days in Washington, when the Annual Assembly of the IMF and World Bank is held in Washington, in the United States. In this opportunity the official delegation will be led by Amado Boudou and whoever presides over the Central Bank. Possibly Mercedes Marco del Pont, who would be nominated for another term by the Executive Branch, while her position could end up as provisional if she doesn't get the backing of the Senate.

"There are no changes with respect to Argentina's position regarding Article IV. But we are open to a dialogue and we hope that they are, too. Certainly we are going to have plenty of time to chat in Washington," said an official source to El Cronista. The source also denied that the IMF is looking at sanctioning the country for its refusal to accept an auditing mission on the country's economy. "There is nothing to that. They didn't inform us of anything about that, neither formally or informally. And in previous cases in which a measure was applied it was for very different reasons," the source said.

One of the ways that the government explored months ago was to give the IMF the base of the report called an 18K as a presentation of the Argentine economy. It's seen as a thick document of around 400 pages that the Economy Ministry had to put together recently to get the authorization of the regulatory agency of the United States markets (Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC) to hold the debt swap in June.

In this context as this newspaper reported on Monday President Cristina Fern ndez de Kirchner will be seen at the beginning of next month in Germany with the chancellor of that country, Angela Merkel. She is seen as the head of the developed countries that has better syntony with the Argentine president.

Cristina will ask her for her support of an outreach by Argentina to the Paris Club. For the government it is crucial to unblock negotiations on this issue, which have been frozen since 2002 when the default was declared on US$6.7 billion that is owed to this group. Aside from Germany, the other creditors are the United States, Japan, Holland and France.

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