Rock bottom

Transcript of a Press Briefing by Caroline Atkinson, Director of External Relations, International Monetary Fund
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Washington, D.C.

QUESTIONER: I have two questions, one regarding Greece. We’ve been hearing a string of comments lately from Germany saying that the IMF is not stringent as perhaps it would on the Greek program. So I’d like to see if you have a reaction to that. And second story, we’ve also had press reports on Argentina would be ready to go through an Article IV to negotiate its debt to the Paris Club. So I’d like to see if that’s something in the works.

MS. ATKINSON: Thank you. So, on Greece, I would just refer you to the last joint press conference actually with the European Commission and the European Central Bank and the IMF after the last visit to Greece, where we had a joint statement about the progress under the program that has been very satisfactory. And the program, as you know, was fully agreed at the Board. So I don’t have any other comment on reports of conversations and so on.

ONLINE QUESTIONER: Argentina hasn’t done an Article IV consultation for a long time. When will they do that? Will there be sanctions? Have the authorities contacted the IMF to coordinate a future visit of the Fund?

MS. ATKINSON: And, as you know, I’m going to be perhaps a little bit boring on this. We remain engaged with the authorities in Argentina. We have a Resident Representative on the ground in Argentina, and we remain ready as we have been for some time to conduct Article IV negotiations. We don’t have any specific timing or mission planned. And I guess on the question of the authorities’ reactions, or the authorities’ views, then of course I’m going to refer you to them and not to us.

QUESTIONER: So it means you haven’t had a request from Argentina?

MS. ATKINSON: I’m not aware of any request from Argentina that has recently been received, which doesn’t mean that they may not be thinking of one, and their new executive director will be coming soon.