Sergio Massa blames IMF's 'imposed devaluation' for August inflation surge

Argentina's Economy Minister Sergio Massa on Wednesday blamed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the sharp 12.4 percent hike in inflation suffered by the country last month. 

The remarks, which came after the government's statistics bureau published the figure and as Massa announced a host of measures to boost workers' pockets, refer to one of the leading causes of August figure: the government's mid-month devaluation of the peso in the wake of turbulent results in the PASO primaries.

"August has been one of the worst months in the economic process of the last 30 years, as a result of an imposition by the International Monetary Fund that in some way has hit our economy enormously, which is the imposition of the devaluation, plus the PAIS tax, as a guarantee mechanism that the Fund intends to use for its collection," said the minister, who is also a presidential candidate for the ruling coalition.

In addition, Massa said that strengthening the peso "is the best way to defeat inflation and also allows us to have the autonomy and sovereignty to pay the Fund and get it out of Argentina because throughout its history, its programmes and recipes end up being inflationary and contractionary."

The remark allowed the Unión por la Patria candidate to not only criticise the multilateral organisation loaning Argentina billions of dollars but also, without directly mentioning him, to slam his leading opponent in the elections, La Libertad Avanza candidate Javier Milei, who calls for the dollarisation of Argentina's economy.

– TIMES/NA