MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World Bank announced US$ 2 bn loans for Argentina

Jaramillo made the announcement Tuesday on X

World Bank (WB) Vice President Carlos Felipe Jaramillo announced Tuesday on X that his entity was “ready to accompany Argentina with more than US$ 2 billion in new loans in the areas of social protection and education and in supporting the poorest in their access to transportation and energy.” He made those remarks after a “very good meeting” with Argentina's Economy Minister Luis Toto Caputo in Washington DC.

According to WB sources, there will be a new project before the Board in late November worth about US$ 1 billion to institutionally strengthen the secretariats that implement the subsidy rationalization programs for transport and electricity in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA). Then in early December, projects to support education within the Federal Commitment for Literacy and the National Literacy Plan, the Nutrition Program for the first thousand days of a baby's life will follow suit.

Caputo is to keep holding key encounters in the US capital on Wednesday, particularly the one with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) CEO Ilan Goldfajn. The IDB has more than $2.4 billion in public sector loans under consideration, some already approved and others still under consideration, according to a column Goldfajn wrote in the Financial Times. The Argentine official traveled this week for the annual (Northern Hemisphere) Fall Meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Argentina hopes to renegotiate a new agreement with the IMF that will allow it to access new disbursements to expand the Central Bank's reserves.

The IMF this week predicted that Argentina will have an inflation rate of 45% in 2025, with the GDP expected to grow by 5%, albeit after a 3.5% contraction in 2024.

In this scenario, President Javier Milei heralded Tuesday during an interview with the streaming channel Neura that “the opening of the [foreign exchange] stocks is much closer than you think.” He also distanced himself from those politicians who “think in terms of votes and image” and insisted he was focused on making the “decisions I think are the right ones,” regardless. “With salaries going up, pensions going up and employment going up,” he foresaw a triumphant La Libertad Avanza in next year's mid-term elections.