LISBON, May 10 (Reuters) – Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez said on Monday he hoped a new, sustainable deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would allow his heavily-indebted country to develop and take into account post-pandemic conditions can be reached soon.
“What we have always asked for is a deal which does not put into question our ability to develop and end inequality. I want to reach a deal that is sustainable,” he told reporters after his meeting in Lisbon with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
He also said his administration was working with creditors to change some rules of the international financial system in the post-pandemic world.
“I was able to transmit to the prime minister the situation which Argentina is in and the work we are doing with the creditors to try and reach not only a deal between the IMF and Argentina but also change some rules of the international financial system which are related to the post-pandemic world.”
Costa, in his turn, said conditions were now in place to hammer out a deal quickly between the south American trade bloc Mercosur and the European Union, while Fernandez said the blocs needed to “work a little more” on the agreement.
Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, editing by Andrei Khalip
