The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said it has reached a preliminary agreement with Argentina on a $20 billion bailout, providing a welcome reprieve to President Javier Milei as he seeks to overturn the country’s old economic order.

As a staff-level agreement, the rescue package still requires final approval from the IMF’s executive board. The board will convene in the coming days, the IMF statement said.

The fund’s long-awaited announcement offered a lifeline to President Milei, who has cut inflation and stabilized Argentina’s troubled economy with a free-market austerity agenda. His policies have reversed the reckless borrowing of left-wing populist governments that had brought Argentina infamy for defaulting on its debts. The country has received more IMF bailouts than any other.

It came at a critical moment for South America’s second-biggest economy. Pressure had been mounting on Argentina’s rapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves as the government tightened rules on money-printing and burned through its scarce dollars to prop up the wobbly Argentine peso.

Fears grew that if the government failed to secure an IMF loan, hard-won austerity measures would veer off-track and leave Argentina, once again, unable to service its huge debts or pay its import bills.

The fresh cash gives Milei a serious shot at easing Argentina’s strict foreign exchange controls, which could help convince markets of his program’s sustainability. For the past six years, the capital restrictions have dissuaded investment, preventing companies from sending profits abroad and ensuring the central bank’s careful management the peso, which is pegged to the dollar.

Racking up 22 IMF loans since 1958, Argentina owes the IMF more than $40 billion. Most IMF funds have been used repay the IMF itself, giving the organization a fraught reputation among Argentines. Many blame the lender for the country’s historic economic implosion and debt default in 2001.

The IMF was wary of striking yet another deal with its largest debtor. But over the past 16 months, fund officials have praised Milei’s austerity — a diet harsher than even the fund’s typical prescription.

A former TV personality and self-proclaimed “ anarcho-capitalist,” Milei came to power on a vow to shrink Argentina’s bloated bureaucracy, kill spiraling inflation, open the economy to international markets and woo foreign investors after years of isolation.

Unlike Argentine politicians in years past who sought to avoid enraging the masses with brutal austerity, Milei has taken his chainsaw to the state, firing tens of thousands of state employees, dissolving or downgrading a dozen ministries, gutting the education sector, cutting inflation adjustments for pensions, freezing public works projects, lifting price controls and slashing subsidies.

Critics note that the poor have paid the highest price for Argentina’s rosy macroeconomic indicators. Retirees have been protesting weekly against low pensions, with the decrease in payments accounting for the largest share of Milei’s budget cuts. Major labor unions announced a 36-hour general strike starting Wednesday in solidarity.

Still, Milei has maintained solid approval ratings, a surprise that analysts attribute to his success in driving down inflation, which dropped to 118% from 211% annually during his first year in office. Flipping budget deficits to surpluses has sent the local stock market booming and its country-risk rating, a pivotal barometer of investor confidence, tumbling.

“The agreement builds on the authorities’ impressive early progress in stabilizing the economy, underpinned by a strong fiscal anchor, that is delivering rapid disinflation,” the IMF said in announcing the agreement under a 48-month arrangement. “The program supports the next phase of Argentina’s homegrown stabilization and reform agenda.”

It remained unclear how much money Argentina would receive up-front — a key sticking point in the most recent negotiations over the deal’s details. Argentina is seeking a hefty payment upfront to replenish its reserves, even as IMF loans are usually disbursed over several years.

Milei shared the IMF statement on social media platform X, attaching a photo that showed him hugging Economy Minister Luis Caputo. “Vavos!” he wrote — apparently misspelling “Vamos!” or “Let’s go!” in his excitement.