“If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.” An old saying, the modern incarnation of which is often attributed to Lord Keynes.
Argentina’s revised program under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the IMF was approved late last month. The associated Staff Report was dropped onto the imf.org webpage with minimal fanfare. It wasn’t posted to the main landing page, as with most Fund documents, only to the Argentina country page. This gives a hint at the internal enthusiasm for the document itself.
Roughly speaking, the new program rolls over the previous Stand-By Arrangement (SBA)—pushing back the repayment period to between 2026 and 2034 while returning to Argentina interest they paid in recent years.
What can be said analytically about this revised document?
Well, at one level there is much to be said. And some of what ought to be said we will say here.
Continue reading “Argentina and the Fund: From Tragedy to Farce”