Argentina to access $5.4 billion—IMF Acting MD

&NewLine;<p><em>The acting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund&comma; IMF&comma; David Lipton<&sol;em><strong><em> <&sol;em><&sol;strong><em> issued the following statement on July 5 on the agreement reached between  IMF staff and the Argentine authorities  on the fourth review of the economic program supported by the Stand-By Arrangement&comma;SBA<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color"><a>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am pleased to&NewLine;announce that IMF staff and the Argentine authorities reached an agreement on&NewLine;the fourth review of the economic program supported by the Stand-By&NewLine;Arrangement&period; Subject to the approval of the Executive Board&comma; Argentina would&NewLine;have access to about US&dollar; 5&period;4 billion &lpar;SDR 3&period;9 billion&rpar;&period;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I commend the Argentine authorities on&NewLine;their continued efforts and steadfast implementation of their economic policy&NewLine;program&period; The authorities completed their entire fiscal&comma; monetary and the social&NewLine;expenditure targets under the IMF-backed program in the context of this review&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Argentina’s economic policies are&NewLine;yielding results&period; Financial markets stabilized in May and June&period; Inflation –&NewLine;while still at high levels – is expected to continue to fall in the coming&NewLine;months&period; The fiscal and external positions continue to improve&period; There are also&NewLine;signs that the economy is improving in the second quarter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I fully support Argentina’s efforts to&NewLine;bolster confidence&comma; lay the foundation for sustainable growth and protect the&NewLine;most vulnerable&period; Steadfast implementation of the commitments and policies&NewLine;underlying the authorities’ IMF-backed program will be critical for continued&NewLine;progress&period; I look forward to discussing this review with the IMF’s Executive&NewLine;Board on July 12&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;