© Reuters. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman attend a conference hosted by the Vatican on economic solidarityBy Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday that now was a “very important moment for Argentina” to enact policies for successful debt restructuring.
Speaking at a Vatican conference on economic solidarity, she told Reuters that the policies must stabilize the Argentine economy and ensure that the most vulnerable in society are not left out.
Georgieva and Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman, who is also at the conference, held what both said were constructive talks on the Latin American country’s debt crisis on Tuesday night.
“It is very important moment for Argentina to put in place policies that are going to stabilize the economy, lead to successful debt restructuring and respond to the expectations of people that those who are the most vulnerable not be left out,” she said.
Guzman told Reuters that his talks with Georgieva were “very good and constructive”, while she told reporters that it was a “very constructive meeting”.
Argentina needs to restructure $100 billion in sovereign debt with creditors, including the IMF, amid a steep recession with inflation above 50%
The Vatican conference at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences brought together more than 25 government officials, religious authorities, and economists, including Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel economics laureate.
“We are going to discuss how the world economy can be more oriented toward the needs of everyone, how it can serve the aspirations of all people and it (the Vatican) is a good place to have that discussion,” said Georgieva, who is Bulgarian.
Last Friday, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez met Pope Francis and said the pontiff, who is also Argentine and lived through a previous debt crisis when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, had promised him to do everything he could to help with the current one.
Fernandez has promised to bridge social divisions and roll out a massive credit system with low rates to bolster domestic demand, and to boost spending to address hunger and poverty.
Stiglitz told the conference that the current Argentine debt crisis gave the world an opportunity “to show that there is an alternative approach to the one that has failed persistently in the past”.
He called for “a framework that simultaneously should appeal to notions of economic rationality and to our sense of social solidarity, a common humanity, which at this point in history seems so under attack”.
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Source: Economy - investing.com
