By Simon Jessop and Karin Strohecker
LONDON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is "very keen" to support Argentina and the country could be a candidate to receive financing through its Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), the Fund's chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday.
Georgieva is expected to meet Argentina's President-elect Javier Milei in person during his visit to Washington on Tuesday. This follows a first virtual meeting between Milei and the Fund on Friday, which Georgieva described as a "very constructive engagement, very serious discussion".
"Let's see how the engagement goes - but good promising first step," Georgieva told Reuters.
"The most important way Argentina can help itself is by addressing the macroeconomic imbalances that have accumulated. But then again, we are very keen to support Argentina, address the deep problem of inflation, create an environment for private sector-led growth that can perk up employment and the economy overall."
Milei secured a stronger-than-expected election win and on Dec. 10 is set to take the helm of South America's second largest economy, which is engulfed in an severe crisis that has seen inflation soar above 140% and net reserves sink deep into the red.
Georgieva said she was interested to discuss how Argentina could become be less vulnerable to climate events.
"They have very significant structural problems that the fund can support them to address, as well as very significant adaptation issues," such as a drought.
Having an ongoing programme is a precondition for tapping the Fund's RST vehicle, which was launched to help vulnerable middle-income and island countries and provides access to low-interest loans to about 140 nations.
It was unclear how Argentina possibly tapping into the RST would be affected by Argentina's $44 billion IMF programme - the Fund's largest - which is seen as having veered off track and running out in September 2024.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Simon Jessop in London; Editing by David Gregorio)