TEHRAN, May 11 - Thousands marched on Thursday (May 10) against economic policies from the administration of Mauricio Macri and a deal with the IMF the government is seeking as trouble brewed for Argentina's peso currency.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) – Under a driving rain, protesters from leftists organizations and unions carried banners and waved flags.
Secretary-General of the Association of State Workers, Hugo Godoy, sounded defiant as he spoke out against the government policies.
"To the workers - they will not stop us, nor the storm and because we workers are not going to to permit this Congress to accept the interference of the International Monetary Fund, the increase of tariffs or the labor reform. We are going to fight until the end so that those infamous resolutions of the government of Macri are turned back.
The workers have a memory. We know that policies like these led us to hell and we will not allow it," he said.
Macri and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced on Tuesday (May 8) they were opening talks for a financing deal after Argentina's peso currency touched a new low of 23.5 to the dollar, despite tighter fiscal measures and hiking interest rates up to 40 percent in Latin America's third-largest economy.
On Wednesday, the Treasury Ministry announced it would seek a stand-by deal' from the IMF, a type of financing that would likely require more conditions and orthodox policy reforms than a Flexible Credit Line (FCL), such as the more stable economies of Mexico and Colombia have.
For many, the announcement brought back memories of a 2001-2002 financial crisis that many blamed on IMF policy prescriptions adopted by the government. The crisis was punctuated by a debt default and currency devaluation that tossed millions of middle-class Argentines into poverty.
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