Seldom, if ever, have the IMF'S staff given their seal of approval more grudgingly. In recommending a $6.6 billion loan to Argentina to cover repayments of past debts due to the Fund itself over the next seven months, Horst Koehler, the IMF'S boss, warned his political masters of the "exceptional risks" they were taking. Even so, the IMF'S board was expected to approve the loan on January 24th. For Roberto Lavagna, Argentina's economy minister, that vindicates some tough tactics (of threatening to default on debts to the IMF, and doing so to the World Bank) and rewards his country's emerging, if fragile, stability after last year's collapse.
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