IMF Meets With Presidential Frontrunner Milei

An IMF spox has confirmed that its representatives held virtual meetings with Argentinian presidential candidate Javier Milei and his team earlier today. Says that the meeting "was an opportunity to learn more about his economic policy priorities." Milei's outperformance in the 13 Aug presidential primaries sent shockwaves through the Argentinian economy, given his plans to "chainsaw" public spending, shutter the central bank, and dollarise the country's economy.

• Prior to the primaries, the broad expectations from markets (and likely the IMF) would be that the conservative 'Together for Change' (JxC) alliance would emerge in first place and go on to take the presidency in October. JxC candidates were seen as the most 'friendly' towards IMF objectives for the Argentinian economy. However, the firebrand libertarian Milei is more of an unknown quantity, and therefore with a USD7.5bn disbursement to Argentina agreed in July the IMF are likely to seek further meetings with Milei in order to ascertain his potential gov't programme.
• Reuters: "The surprise result sparked turmoil in the country's bond and currency markets, triggering the central bank to hike interest rates by 21 percentage points and the government to devalue the currency by 18%. Argentina's economy is the largest debtor to the Washington-based lender, with a $44 billion loan."