The spokesman for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gerry Rice, admitted on September 26 that the U$S 5.4 billion payment to Argentina has been postponed. “It is not exceptional in our programs to have a delay in the disbursements,” he explained, emphasizing that the agency was not putting the country “in second place”, although he did not give a specific date.

A day earlier, Finance Minister Hernán Lacunza had held a meeting with the Fund’s new managing director, the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, during which he tried, unsuccessfully, to unblock the payment. 

The meetings between the IMF team and the Argentine authorities will continue on October 14 in Washington. Lacunza is expected to base the agenda around why Argentina needs the IMF to make the disbursement and will argue that Argentina has met the goals set by the agency for the second quarter of the year.