The IMF said on Friday it will start talks with the government of crisis-ravaged Argentina on a new rescue package next week. The Washington-based crisis lender will send a team to meet with officials in Buenos Aires starting Tuesday to discuss the country's challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic, including debt owed to the fund, an IMF spokesman said. The mission will "launch formal negotiations... on a new program with the IMF to support the economic plan of the government," the spokesman said in a statement. However, "there is no date set to finalize the negotiations." Even prior to the pandemic, the South American nation was facing a severe economic crisis despite massive IMF lending in recent years, and the fund said the Covid-19 crisis exacerbated already high unemployment and poverty rates. Buenos Aires is hoping to renegotiate repayments on a $44 billion loan from the IMF in 2018. It was originally meant to be $57 billion, but President Alberto Fernandez halted disbursements when he took office in December 2019. The first repayments are due in September 2021. The fund spokesman said the goal is to "help the people of Argentina overcome the complex socioeconomic challenges the country faces and lay the foundation for a more stable economy." In August, Argentina managed to restructure a $66 billion foreign bond debt that was worth 54.8 cents on the dollar. The South American country has been in recession since 2018, and inflation is over 40 percent. hs/cs