MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina gets new loan from the IDB

The new deal is in addition to one granted the day before

The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) has granted Argentina a US$ 150 million loan to strengthen educational access for school-age youth in the province of Buenos Aires, it was announced Thursday. This new credit is in addition to another one granted the day before in the amount of US$ 265 million, to boost the inclusion of people with disabilities.

The new deal is a Results-Based Loan (RBL) that will improve access to educational opportunities and healthy school meals for young people who are in vulnerable contexts and attend state-run schools, it was explained. It will also aim to improve the digital inclusion of secondary school students from these institutions, the IDB said in a statement.

“Ensuring continuous and complete educational trajectories continues to be one of the main social challenges in the region, given that young people in poverty tend to achieve fewer years of schooling,” the IDB said.

According to the IDB, evidence shows that “one of the main structural causes that jeopardize the educational trajectories of the most vulnerable are the economic and social aspects linked to the living conditions of students, which affect their physical, socioemotional and cognitive development, and affect their regular school attendance”.

The $150 million IDB loan has a three-year disbursement period, a 5.5-year grace period, and an interest rate based on SOFR.

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said progress was being made to rediscuss Argentina's debt with the International Monetary Fund. The administration of President Alberto Fernández “is talking and moving forward” in a “review of the mechanisms that will be carried forward” in the framework of the agreement with the IMF, Cerruti said. “The Government is working to sustain an inflation that was down in the first two weeks of this month,” she also pointed out.