The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, left this Thursday for Punta Cana to participate in the four-day event annual summit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a space where he plans to meet the head of the entity, Illan Goldfajn, White House officials and the banks with which Argentina seeks funding.
Caputo will arrive in the Dominican Republic accompanied by the Secretary of Finance, Pablo Quirno, for the meeting of the board of directors of the CAF and the annual assembly of that organization. The officials will participate together with other Ministers of Finance, Economy and Presidents of the Central Banks of the 48 member countries to discuss credit expansion of the largest financial organization in the region.
In this framework, the minister and his team will meet the former US senator and advisor to President Joe Biden, Chris Doddand with the deputy undersecretary of the Treasury of that country, Michael Kaplan an official he had already met in December during the visit of a mission led by Jay Shambaugh, the number two of the United States Ministry of Economy, responsible to Janet Yellen.
It will be the word of Yellen and Biden officials key to negotiations with the IMF, of which the United States is the largest shareholder. The Treasury Minister met Caputo 7 days ago as part of the G20 in Brazil, where he praised the “important steps” to reduce the fiscal deficit, adjust the exchange rate and fight inflation, and called for protecting the ” more vulnerable” “.
In Washington there are fears about the “sustainability” of the adjustment plan. The deputy director of the Fund, Gita Gopinath, had insisted weeks ago during her visit to the country The government must gain political and social support as well as advance in income tax refundthe elimination of tax exemptions e maintain the real value of pensions, something the IMF insisted on again this Thursday.
Caputo and his team will also meet with the president of the IDB and representatives of Croatia, Finland, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil and Uruguay.
Last week, Goldfajn highlighted the changes implemented by Javier Milei and teased that he will send a mission to Argentina to prevent fiscal adjustment from being “unsustainable” and to work on subsidies and social spending.
The former IMF official met Milei in December in Buenos Aires, where they talked about the loans granted and The head of the IDB promised new disbursements linked to the achievement of the objectives agreed with the IMF and the progress of the projects with the bank, many of which finalized finance infrastructure and public worksactivity practically stopped.
According to the organization’s data, The loans approved for Argentina amount to 12,207 million dollars, including water and sanitation projects, transportation, state reform, urban housing, social investment, financial market, agriculture and healthcare. The data from the Ministry of Economy attests to this The central government’s gross debt to the BIS amounts to $16,459 million.
The minister will also meet the authorities of IDB Invest – the private sector investment arm -, FONPLATA, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the European Investment Bank ( EIB) and private banks and investors. The government seeks funding from Japan and Europe for investments in lithium and mining.
Caputo’s agenda includes his participation in the joint meeting of the committees of the governors’ assemblies of the IDB and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), while Quirno will participate in the second plenary session of IDB Lab, the innovation arm and the entrepreneurial capital of the organization and in the special meeting of governors.
During these meetings, Argentina will participate as a shareholder of IDB and CAF to discuss the political and governance agenda of both institutions. In the first case, the organization proposes to change the strategy to focus on reducing poverty, inequality and climate change; capitalize IDB Invest; and triple the IDB Lab’s resources.
Source: Clarin
