\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the progress made by the Milei government on economic stabilization, falling inflation, and rising reserves. The fund added that whether Argentina returns to international debt markets is up to the country\u2019s own authorities.<\/p>\n
The message came from Julie Kozak, director of the IMF\u2019s communications department, at her regular press briefing in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cArgentina is continuing to make important progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, strengthening the country\u2019s resilience and economic resilience, and creating a more open and efficient economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also noted that \u201cgrowth has continued, inflation is falling, international reserves are being rebuilt, and financing conditions have continued to improve for Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s GDP grew 2.3% in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from statistics institute INDEC released this week.<\/p>\n
The Central Bank, for its part, met its US$10 billion full-year dollar-buying target with the IMF in just six months, while inflation slowed again in April (2.6%) and May (2.1%) after peaking in March (3.4%).<\/p>\n
At another point in the briefing, Kozak addressed the labor reform pushed by Milei and noted that it\u2019s still too early to gauge its results: \u201cThe labor reform that has been put in place recently is relatively new, is relatively recent, and the effect of these kinds of reforms takes time to emerge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal, Kozak added, \u201cis to support formal job creation and to improve the functioning of the labor market.\u201d<\/p>\n
A return to foreign markets? The IMF spokesperson declined to weigh in on whether now is the right time for the Argentine government to return to the international debt market.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions regarding the timing and the terms of market access are ultimate decisions to be made by the authorities,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n
Shortly before, though, she had noted that the trend in financial indicators supports the prospect of regaining access to foreign financing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarket sentiment to Argentina has become more favorable, and this reflects in upgrades by two credit rating agencies,\u201d Kozak said, referring to Fitch and S&P Global Ratings.<\/p>\n
She highlighted the Argentine government\u2019s \u201ccontinuous efforts\u201d to strengthen the Central Bank\u2019s reserves, which \u201cwill ultimately help support durable access to both domestic and international capital markets over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Argentina\u2019s financial commitments to the IMF, the spokesperson said, \u201cArgentina has made all of its payments to the Fund, and we are confident that they will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentine country risk has been falling steadily in recent months.<\/p>\n
In April, JPMorgan\u2019s EMBI+ index was hovering around 520 basis points, but after upgrades to Argentina\u2019s sovereign debt rating and the provisional resolution of the conflict in the Middle East, it dropped to 425 basis points its lowest level in eight years. It currently sits at 435 points.<\/p>\n
Milei\u2019s government is betting big on reducing country risk. That would allow Argentina to return to international markets to refinance its foreign debt without leaning on multilateral lenders, paying off maturities in cash through reserve accumulation, or accepting excessively high interest rates.<\/p>\n
Still and despite the steady drop in country risk Economy Minister Luis Caputo has repeatedly stressed that he would rather wait for financing costs to fall even further than current levels.<\/p>\n
For comparison, Brazil\u2019s country risk stands at 176 points, Chile\u2019s at 82 and Uruguay\u2019s the lowest in Latin America at 59.<\/p>\n
So far, the Argentine government has preferred to place dollar bonds on the domestic debt market and to draw on funds from its latest agreements with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the progress made by the Milei government on economic stabilization, falling inflation, and rising reserves. The fund added that whether Argentina returns to international debt markets is up to the country\u2019s own authorities. The message came from Julie Kozak, director of the IMF\u2019s communications department, at her regular press […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":81831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,305,61,10228],"tags":[96,3246,89,10227],"class_list":["post-81830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economics","category-imf","category-javier-milei","category-julie-kozak","tag-economics","tag-imf","tag-javier-milei","tag-julie-kozak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}