Argentina’s Economy Ministry announced measures to improve wages for public workers and divert money to retirees and poorer families, defying the International Monetary Fund’s demand for the country to spend less.
Sergio Massa, economy minister and presidential candidate, outlined measures including tax cuts, higher pension payments, extra money for food programs for families with children, and low-interest lines of credit, “Bloomberg” reports.
The new plan, which also includes financing for export products, comes after President Alberto Fernández’s Union for the Fatherland coalition, of which Massa is a candidate, was surprised by the victory of the libertarian Javier Milei in the primaries this August prior to the October elections.
In his speech, Massa alluded to the devaluation of the currency and the unprecedented climate crisis as reasons to offer financial support to Argentine families.
“The main objective is that all sectors of the economy have help, in some way, from the state,” Massa said.
One of the conditions of the IMF loan to the Fernández government was that Argentina tighten its control over spending by limiting public salaries and pensions. In its statement, the lender demanded that Buenos Aires apply a temporary increase in taxes on certain goods and services to compensate for drought-related export losses.
Argentina is the largest debtor of the IMF, an entity that in 2018 delivered to the Macri Executive the largest credit granted in its history to a single country.
