(Adds details from news conference, context)
March 23 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is
assessing Argentina's debt swap announcement in accordance with
the objectives of their $44 billion program, a spokesperson for
the global lender said on Thursday.
Argentina's dollar bond prices fell on Wednesday, a day
after the government announced measures to push state entities
to give up their local and foreign-law sovereign bonds in
dollars to tamp down on exchange rate volatility.
"Prudent debt management is necessary to improve the
functioning of the domestic bond market and the FX market," IMF
spokesperson Julie Kozack said in a news conference.
"But it must be conducted in a manner that does not add to
vulnerabilities down the road," she added, without specifying if
the plan creates those vulnerabilities.
Kozack said Argentina's economic management during the
second half of 2022 supported stability and helped secure the
program targets, but "against a more challenging economic
backdrop, particularly the increasingly severe drought, stronger
policy actions are now necessary to safeguard stability."
Argentina, a top global grains exporter, is suffering
through its harshest drought in decades and the smaller crops
are expected to keep pressure on dwindling central bank foreign
exchange reserves.
"Stronger actions are also needed to address rising
inflation and policy setbacks," Kozack said.
The IMF and Argentina reached a staff-level agreement
last week that when approved by the IMF's board will allow the
disbursement of $5.3 billion to the government - money it needs
to pay the IMF back
next week
.
Kozack said the board review is expected to happen
"relatively soon and in line with the regular quarterly cycle of
reviews."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Andrea Shalal and David Lawder;
Editing by Paul Simao)
