The board of the International Monetary Fund on Friday concluded an informal meeting on a loan program for Argentina but offered scant new details on the nature of pending support for the troubled Latin American economy. In a statement, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde stressed that Buenos Aires would have political ownership of the program, which she said needed support from the Argentine public.
"This will be Argentina's economic program," Lagarde said in a statement. "The authorities stressed that goals of the program would include creating a clear path to strong, sustained, and equitable growth and robust job creation," the statement said. "We fully endorse those goals." Argentina requested the loan last week after a bout of financial turbulence hit the currency of Latin America's third-largest economy. Despite reform efforts, the country once again finds itself facing a falling currency, high debt and soaring inflation.