ARGENTINIAN president-elect Alberto Fernandez announced on Tuesday that he would not take any more money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid plunging the country further into crippling debt.

He told the global finance body that he needed time to get the country’s economy back on track, but said “don’t give me more money.”

Mr Fernandez — who will assume the Argentinian presidency on December 10 — insisted that he would not ask for the $11 billion (£8.5bn) remainder of the $56.31bn (£43.47bn) IMF loan negotiated by outgoing President Mauricio Macri.

It was the largest deal in the IMF’s history, but was conditional on Argentina adopting extreme austerity measures — with a neoliberal package of cuts to public spending and welfare services and the loss of thousands of jobs driving many into poverty.

Widespread protests followed as the country plunged deeper into crippling debt and struggled to provide the basic needs of the people.

Argentinians feared a return to the 2001 economic collapse, when the currency dropped in value by three quarters and poverty reached 54 per cent.

Mr Fernandez insisted that “the solution to the problems” facing the economy is not to increase the country’s debt.

“The economy has been paralysed for more than two years with a fall in consumption.

”We have to go back to manufacturing, give credits to reactivate production, give money to retirees to consume. We have to do what here is called Peronism,” he said.

Mr Macri’s IMF deal failed to boost the economy, with the Ministry of Finance reporting on Monday that 83 per cent of the loan was used to pay off foreign debt. Just $1.9 billion (£1.47bn) remains in the government coffers.