Kozack – Cubeddu: technical keys to the agreement with the IMF

The North American economist and the Venezuelan will begin this weekend to discuss the technical terms of the final goals, with the Argentine envoys to Washington headed by the country’s delegate to the organism Sergio Chodos. Both sides will finally evaluate the conditions of the relowded Extended Facilities agreement. And to achieve an agreement of this type, the final report that Kozack and Cubeddu will sign and deliver to the leadership of the Fund, which will be the one who will have to sign a paper that must then be dealt with by the IMF board. It will be seen whether before or after December 20, the day the organism goes into hiatus until after the end of the year holidays.

Cubeddu He is an old acquaintance of the country. AND Kozack, someone who showed good harmony in his first contacts with Buenos Aires.

The Venezuelan began his ties with the country between 2002 and 2004 when he was the representative of the organization during the government of Eduardo Duhalde and the first stage of the mandate of Néstor Kirchner. He has been with the organization for more than 23 years, with extensive experience in various countries. He was in charge of the agency’s programs with Argentina in the mentioned period, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico and Ukraine. Since December 2019, he was appointed, due to his patient experience, as the person in charge of negotiating the future of the Stand By signed by Macri, but with the Fernández government.

Meanwhile, Julie Kozack, is, since dealing with the Argentine case, the great hope of understanding on the part of the government. Beyond the harshness in her dealings, the North American demonstrated throughout 2021 good harmony with local officials and a willingness to communicate fluently with Buenos Aires. It was at key moments that he put some understanding of the local situation in the face of number two William Okamoto, a permanent threat of tough positions, such as the one that was verified in Rome last November. The deputy director for the Western Hemisphere also always spoke with some pride that for about a year she has been treating the Argentine case as her most important mission since she has been at the Fund. She mentions in her curriculum that she was a delegate in Germany, to later work on agreements with Poland, Iceland, Lithuania and, fundamentally, in Russia; country on which he wrote several research papers. Now she is focused on the Argentine situation, showing some understanding of the local economic situation and little willingness to demand politically utopian adjustments from the country. It is inflexible, however, on the need to guarantee the path to a fiscal balance.

There is a point that hope the presence of Kozack as one of the decision-makers of the mission. The economist has a Phd from Columbia University, obtained between ’94 and ’99; the same one where Martín Guzmán finished his ideological training under the tutelage of the Nobel Prize in Economics Joseph Stiglitz. From what is known, Kozack is part of the ideological and conceptual renewal of the IMF, starting from his way of finding solutions to the financial and monetary crises of developing countries without the usual tutelage and reforms of the international organization.