FILE PHOTO – Protesters sit near the National Congress as the Senate debates the government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Buenos Aires, Argentina March 17, 2022. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

BUENOS AIRES, April 23 (Reuters) – Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman said on Friday night that a $45 billion debt deal with the International Monetary Fund would not be changed, following a a meeting with the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva.

“We are not going to change the objectives of the program with the IMF,” Guzman told local media.

The South American country’s centre-left Peronist government led by President Alberto Fernandez reached a staff-level deal with the international lender in early March to avoid a default.

The deal sets out a new 30-month funding schedule to replace a failed $57 billion program from 2018 that the grain-producing nation was unable to repay after years of recession, runaway inflation and capital flight.

However, Guzman warned without giving further details that there will be a shift in focus to focus on the social safety net due to the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine which triggered global inflation.

Argentina has long suffered from extremely high inflation. However, the war increased price spikes in Argentina as well as much of Latin America. Argentinian inflation in 2021 exceeded 50%.

Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Andrea Ricci

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