⁍ Argentina will start talks with the International Monetary Fund in the coming weeks aimed at clinching a new program.

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⁍ In 2018, Argentina received the biggest lending package in IMF history in an ill-fated bid to halt a slide in the local peso currency.

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⁍ The government has had to renegotiate about $65 billion in bonds as the country sinks into what is expected to be a 12.5% recession this year.

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– Argentina is in the midst of its worst recession in two decades, and it’s looking to the International Monetary Fund for help. “Within the next few weeks Argentina plans to formally request the initiation of conversations for a new program that would succeed the derailed and canceled 2018 program,” IMF executive director for the Southern Cone Sergio Chodos tells Reuters. “There is no stringent deadline for conclusion of the upcoming talks because the calendar of maturities of principal owed to the fund does not start until Sept. 21, 2021. So the discussion process can be well thought out.” Chodos says new lending from the IMF won’t be part of the new program, which would replace a $57 billion standby loan deal from two years ago, when then-President Mauricio Macri’s austerity drive caused the country to run out of cash. The government has had to renegotiate about $65 billion in bonds as the country sinks into what is expected to be a 12.5% recession this year.