Our man in Banana

Transcript of a Press Briefing on the World Economic Outlook
Washington, D.C.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Speaker: Good day. I am William Murray, Chief of Media Relations at the IMF. This is the spring edition of the World Economic Outlook press briefing.


Mr. Murray: We have a number of questions online regarding Argentina so. I see an Argentine journalist so I am going to call on her. It is probably a similar question.

Question: I have a question about the estimation of growth. The estimation of this year is about 2 points more than the previous estimation. On the other hand, there is the inflation estimation which is lower in your records. So, I want to know why and the assumption on that, and what is your general opinion about the health of the Argentine economy.

Mr. Decressin: As far as growth is concerned, we are seeing a stronger rebound in Argentina than what we had expected partly driven by very buoyant demand in the region, including in Brazil, that in itself is driven by higher commodity prices and also stronger capital flows than expected in October. All of this is spilling over to the countries surrounding these capital importers, such as Brazil and Chile, and so forth, and that is why you are seeing stronger growth also in Argentina. Fundamentally, the strong growth is good news for the economy because it will help lower unemployment, which is still fairly high. Over time we believe that policies in Argentina will need to become somewhat less procyclical than they are right now to rebuild policy space for the future. If that happens, then the economy will be also in good shape to weather new shocks if and when they arise.