At a meeting with Argentine President Mauricio Macri on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Charlevoix, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde reiterated her support for the government’s economic reforms announced on Thursday after it signed a financing agreement of $50 billion with the IMF.
“We believe the authorities’ economic plan will help strengthen the Argentine economy in the short term and bolster growth and job creation going forward,” said Lagarde after the meeting.
“As I have said before, protecting the poor and the most vulnerable is a key component of the plan, and I am very supportive of that focus. I am also encouraged by the government’s efforts to close the gender gap in Argentina and fully endorse their plans in this regard,” she added. “I look forward to continuing our dialogue in the context of the upcoming G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Buenos Aires in July.”
This is the first time an Argentine president has attended a G7 summit since its creation in the 1970s. President Macri also held meetings with otherG7 leaders and heads of international organizations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel; UK Prime Minister Theresa May; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; French President Emmanuel Macron; OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría; and Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank. In each of these meetings, Macri received strong backing for the structural reforms the government is currently undertaking.
At the meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leaders discussed prospects for the upcoming G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of November. As last year’s G20 president, Germany is part of the G20 troika that guarantees the continuity of the group's agenda.
They also looked at possible German investments within the framework of the Public-Private Partnership projects promoted by the Argentine Government, as well as in railways. They discussed the progress of the negotiations to finalize the free trade agreement between the European Union and the South American trading block Mercosur, as well as the current situation in Venezuela.
President Macri and UK Prime Minister Theresa May built on the agenda set out earlier this week by Argentine Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña, who was in London to meet with senior UK government authorities and parliamentary representatives. Both leaders agreed that the bilateral relationship is working very well and spoke about advancing on trade issues at the G20.
At the meeting with G7 president and prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, the leaders exchanged experiences on the G7 Summit and discussed prospects for the G20 Leaders Summit.
Over the course of the summit, President Macri also spoke with Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte; Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker; UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness; Rwandan President Paul Kagame; Senegalese President Macky Sall; Seychelles President Danny Faure; and Jovenel Moise, President of Haiti.
