Director of Georgetown Americas Institute Presents Book on Argentina’s Complex Relationship with the IMF at UNAB.

In the José María Aznar auditorium of the Casona de Las Condes Campus, the launching of the book «La Argentina en el fondo. La intimidad de la lucha contra el FMI», written by economist and current director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, Alejandro Werner, in collaboration with journalist Martín Kanenguiser.

The book recounts unpublished details about Argentina’s complex relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its impacts.

The event, held on Wednesday, March 6, was organized by the School of Economy and Business of the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB) and its International Relations Department. In his presentation, Werner commented that Argentina is one of the countries that has had one of the most complex relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and that the idea of writing a book about this relationship was based on«the great level of misinformation that exists in Latin America about the financial crisis that Argentina is going through.»

«In the book, we explain that complex governments such as the Cuban, Nicaraguan, or Ecuadorian governments have solved the problems that their programs have had with the IMF in a good way; however, Argentina would be a sort of chronic patient if ironically we were to refer to the International Monetary Fund as a doctor,» the economist pointed out.

«Since 2009, the trans-Andean country began to have a level of spending much higher than the level of income, and in the period of Cristina Fernandez, it stopped meeting the obligations with the IMF. Then, in the Macri government, the president inherited a significant economic crisis, but he felt that he did not have the mandate to make a strong fiscal balance. Finally, everything gets worse in the administration of Alberto Fernández, who says that inflation is a distributive struggle between capital and labor, which generates a lot of uncertainty, volatility increases, and the program presented to the IMF begins to lose credibility», stated the former director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund.

In this sense, Werner concluded that the current Argentine President, Javier Milei, is seeking a broad agreement for May 2024 to stabilize the economy, adding that «he will need to govern with the other branches of government because it is very difficult to lead a nation with high electoral support but low legislative collaboration.»

UNAB President Julio Castro thanked the economist for his presence at UNAB and for his presentation, noting that «this type of activity allows students to participate in top-level events.»

Finally, Nicolás Garrido, a member of UNAB’s School of Economics and Business, praised Werner’s book presentation at the University, attended by more than 100 students from the faculty, professors, university authorities, and diplomats from different countries.

Werner is an expert who has first-hand knowledge of the relationship between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund, having had the opportunity to interact and negotiate with three trans-Andean presidents during the presentation and implementation of their programs to seek economic stability», explained Garrido, highlighting the relevance of having this type of expert at the University, thus giving added value to the training of its students, Garrido explained, highlighting the significance of having this type of expert at the University, thus giving added value to the training of its students.