Rio, November 21, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The secretary of Finances at the Ministry of Economy of Argentina, Guillermo Nielsen, speaking yesterday at the Latin American Business Summit, declared that if an Argentina-IMF deal cannot be worked out by February the country's reserves will reach a level that will make it difficult to manage the economy. Debt totalling US$9.5 billion falls due between now and May, and there are not enough reserves to cover those payments, says Nielsen. In that case the obvious choice is to halt payments, he added.

Nielsen said he hoped an understanding with the IMF could be reached on funds to pay off multilateral organizations, not private investors. Argentina still has 60 days to deal with a debt payment of US$800 million to the World Bank. (AB)