MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IDB will continue to support Argentina

However, the IDB is not involved in Argentina's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, Goldfajn explained

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Ilan Goldfajn said his entity “has supported Argentina for many years and decades and will continue to” do so after President Javier Milei's administration adopted a series of measures he found to be “strong.”

Hence, the IDB will help Argentina protect the most vulnerable to mitigate the impact of fiscal adjustment aimed at curbing rampant inflation and public deficit.

The Brazilian economist also explained that the IDB was “accelerating measures to be more efficient and to help protect the most vulnerable; it is our priority right now.”

“When you do this kind of big adjustment, it is not a gradual adjustment. You have to take into account social protection and that's another area where we have our specialists,” he went on. “We can work on efficiency in the energy aspect, electricity and subsidies.”

Goldfajn also pointed out that “in terms of liquidity or financing, these are negotiations with the IMF and we are not part of those negotiations. We will continue with our programming for the year. Of course, it is always important to have an agreement at the IMF staff level. I know clearly about the liquidity problems, but the IMF is negotiating and we will put our efforts and our programming.”

Several IDB experts are currently in Argentina to help achieve “efficiency” and determine “where you can provide more impact with more protection in terms of the most vulnerable,” Goldfajn noted.

In his first year in office after replacing the American Mauricio Claver-Carone, Goldfajn said that “we adopted the value of open dialogue and transparent practices” but there is “a lot of work ahead” with the focus on reducing poverty and inequality, addressing climate change, and boosting sustainable regional growth.

“We are focused on maximizing scale and impact,” but “they are different things” that should complement each other because “what is really important is not how much we lend, but our impact: how many lives we improve,” he told the IDB Board this week.

Latin America and the Caribbean need “more productivity” to break the cycle of low growth and become “part of the solution to global challenges,” Goldfajn insisted.