[stop-imf] Argentina and IMF: progressive views

[Robert Weissman]

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Thursday, August 23, 2001

Argentina and IMF: Interviews Available

As the IMF and Argentina's government agree to another loan package of $8
billion and further austerity programs, the following analysts are
available for interviews:

BEVERLY KEENE, 011-54-11-4361-5745, 011-54-11-4307-5136, cell:
011-54-15-5612-3198,
keeneba@wamani.apc.org, http://www.jubileesouth.net,
http://www.dialogo2000.org.ar
Coordinator of Dialogue 2000, a coalition representing human-rights and
other groups in Argentina, Keene said today: "This new agreement with the
IMF brings no resolution to growing unemployment and poverty. In fact, it
will only make things worse since these loans are conditional on
implementing more of the policies that have impaired the economy and taken
an enormous human toll due to the cuts in health and social services....
Argentina will pay some $30 billion in interest and foreign debt service
this year, more than half the national budget and many times over what it
will spend on education and healthcare. This debt itself is fundamentally
illegitimate, in part because it largely originated in loans taken out by a
military junta responsible for the torture and disappearance of more than
30,000 Argentinians during the so-called 'dirty war' during the 1970s and
'80s. The governments, bankers and corporations of the rich north are
continuing to oppress us by forcing us to pay them back for their loaning
money to the murderous junta."

MARK WEISBROT, (202) 293-5380 ext 228, cell: 423-6762, 333-6141,
weisbrot@cepr.net,
http://www.cepr.net/globalization/scorecard_on_globalization.htm
Co-author of the recent report "The Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000:
Twenty Years of Diminished Progress," Weisbrot said today: "Argentina has
borrowed more than $40 billion at high interest rates to defend its
overvalued currency. That would be the equivalent of our government
borrowing $1.4 trillion -- 70 percent of our federal budget -- to defend
our own overvalued dollar. For 20 years now, Latin America has followed
Washington's advice and slashed tariffs, swallowed IMF austerity plans and
sold off tens of billions of dollars of state assets to foreigners. This
has brought a lot of pain, but no gain. Over the last 20 years, income per
person in Latin America grew by a mere 7 percent, compared to 75 percent
for the two decades before that (1960-1980), when governments exercised
more control over their economic policies."

GREG PALAST, (631) 765-6171, gregory.palast@guardian.co.uk,
http://www.GregoryPalast.com
An economist and author of "Democratic Regulation," Palast writes the
column "Inside Corporate America" for Britain's Guardian newspapers. He
said today: "Last September, while Argentina was already on the cliff-edge
of a deep recession, the IMF required Argentina to cut the budget deficit
from $5.3 billion to $4.1 billion and asked for 'a 12-15 percent cut in
salaries' of civil servants. The economists at the IMF surely know that
holding back government spending and snuffing out purchasing power in a
contracting economy would be like turning off the engines on an airplane in
stall. The payoff for these delusional and cruel policies was a $26 billion
emergency loan package. However, the IMF also forced Argentina to 'peg' its
currency to the dollar, which meant that Argentina was at the mercy of
banks and speculators and ended up paying a whopping 16 percent risk
premium above normal in return for the dollars needed for this scheme.
Argentina's people don't net one penny. Little of the bailout money escapes
New York, where it lingers to pay interest to U.S. creditors, like
Citibank. What's more, the peg causes the peso to remain overvalued, making
it very hard for Argentina to export its way out of recession. This
disaster was created by IMF policies which transformed a mild recession
into a depression and international crisis."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or (202) 332-5055; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167