Economy Minister Sergio Massa spoke this Friday on the second day of the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in the Indian city of Bangalore.
In his speech, Massa returned to issues that the government has already raised in other international meetings. He emphasized the need to work financing alternatives to the Multilateral Development Banks; called to review the policy IMF surcharges; and he asked that the economic damage from war in multilateral organizations.
“The natural heritage and biodiversity of our countries are at the service of humanity, which shapes us unacknowledged creditors against financial creditors”, he assured in the official session on International Financial Architecture, Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure.
Massa reviewed the international context of pandemic, war and drought due to climate change. And he considered that “sustainable financing presents challenges especially for developing countries” and that “many countries lack access to grants and climate finance under favorable conditions to invest in mitigation, adaptation and energy transition”.
In turn, he indicated that “the pre-existing asymmetries in financing conditions between developing and advanced economies have been exacerbated by the tightening of interest rates in many advanced economies.
Massa stressed the need for “increase sources of investment in social and sustainable infrastructure”, which he considers a “key factor” for economic recovery, competitiveness and for responding to structural challenges such as climate change, urbanization and digitalisation. In this sense, he highlighted the role of the Multilateral Credit Banks, but called to “discuss other financing alternatives” and also “provide financial aid to countries that need it”.
“We have at this table countries rich in economic and financial resources and, on the other, Countries rich in ecosystem resources. Our country is a financial debtor but an environmental creditor. Our countries’ natural heritage and biodiversity serve humanity, which makes us unrecognized creditors over financial creditors,” he said.
In turn, Massa interrogated that an agreement has not been reached in the IMF board of directors to revise the surcharge policy. “It is regressive, because it falls on countries with greater financing needs; procyclical, because it makes economic recovery and repayment capacity even more difficult; and opaque, because countries rarely know they will have to pay surcharges,” he considered.
Finally, the minister asked “the same countries that ask for the seriousness of the war damage appoint their directors in multilateral organizations of those of us who have been the economic victims of this damage, let us speak up in those forums
According to a report by Economy, the impact of the war on Argentina last year it would have been $4.940 million in the trade balancedue to the sharp increase in fuel prices and international transport.
Massa’s agenda in India will continue with a bilateral meeting with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. Subsequently, he will hold meetings with his counterpart from the Brazilian Treasury, fernando haddad; with the Director General of Operations of the World Bank, Axel van Trotzenburg; and with the Federal Minister of Finance of Germany, Christian Lindner.
Source: Clarin
