Difficult to find 'quick path forward' for Argentina: IMF official

• The International Monetary Fund "remains fully engaged" in trying to help Argentina.
• Buenos Aires has received about $44 billion so far of the record $57 billion, three-year loan approved in June 2018.

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund "remains fully engaged" in trying to help Argentina, but a rapid solution is complicated by the uncertainty facing the country, a fund spokesman said Thursday.

"We will move as fast as we can, and try to do the best we can for Argentina in every respect," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters.

"In light of the complex situation and the policy uncertainty it has been difficult to find a quick path forward."

The crisis-hit nation is awaiting release of a $5.4 billion loan disbursement from the IMF, but on Wednesday acting IMF chief David Lipton told Bloomberg that the financial relationship with Buenos Aires "may have to wait awhile."

Rice pushed back on reports that the IMF has put its relationship with Argentina on hold.

"That is incorrect," he said in his regular biweekly press briefing.

"I don't have specific info on timing, but the discussions are ongoing."

Newly-appointed IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who officially takes up her post October 1, met with Argentina's Finance Minister Hernan Lacunza in Washington on Wednesday.

Lacunza's team also met with other key fund officials, and is expected to return to Washington for the IMF annual meetings in mid-October, Rice said, saying the "discussions continue very actively."

Buenos Aires has received about $44 billion so far of the record $57 billion, three-year loan approved in June 2018 but soaring inflation and rising poverty stirred outrage at the government's belt-tightening measures.

The defeat of business-friendly President Mauricio Macri at the hands of populist challenger Alberto Fernandez in a primary election last month whipped up market volatility in the recession-hit nation.

To calm market turbulence, the government in late August asked the IMF to restructure its repayments.

With a month left until presidential elections, the country continues to await the release of another installment from the Washington-based crisis lender.

Lacunza, who has been in his post just over a month, also announced initiatives to postpone debt payments to institutional investors, relieving the pressure on international reserves so they can be used to stabilize the currency which spiraled lower in the wake of the election.

Lipton acknowledged that the government's steps have helped calm the situation, but IMF officials decline to speculate on the timing for releasing additional funds.