MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Praise for Milei’s stabilization program: IDB approves 2 billion dollars in loans for Argentina

The loans will assist the country in key measures to strengthen public finances, energy sector sustainability, and child development

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Executive Board approved four operations, totaling over 2 billion US dollars to support Argentina's strategy to promote fiscal sustainability and lay the groundwork for sustainable and equitable growth. The loans will assist the country in key measures to strengthen public finances, energy sector sustainability, and child development. Additionally, the IDB will support the City of Buenos Aires in improving access to public health services.

These operations contribute to the IDB's multidimensional strategy in Argentina to support the government's efforts to achieve fiscal stability, ensure the protection of the most vulnerable populations, and ensure the path of growth.

Comprehensive Early Childhood Development

The program will benefit pregnant women and children up to 4 years old by improving the efficiency of transfer programs and increasing access to quality early childhood development services. The project will shorten the verification and payment periods for compliance with health co-responsibilities under the Universal Child Benefit. Additionally, beneficiaries of the Universal Pregnancy Benefit will be able to access the program without filing paperwork. The project will also benefit close to 130,000 children attending Early Childhood Development Centers in vulnerable areas and 110,000 families participating in support programs to strengthen parenting practices. This is a US$ 700 million loan.

Transition to a Sustainable Electric Sector

This loan will benefit at least 2.5 million low-income residential electricity consumers in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires and will focus on ensuring that these households maintain access to affordable electric service while strengthening institutional capacity to implement a more sustainable, fair, and progressive subsidy system. This is a US$700 million loan.

Digital Agenda for the Buenos Aires Health System

More than one million users of the public health system will benefit from this loan, which will finance the modernization of diagnostic equipment and the implementation of a more efficient hospital management system. As a result, the City of Buenos Aires will have timelier, integrated, and quality health information, reducing average waiting times for results, providing evidence for more accurate medical diagnoses, and facilitating inter-jurisdictional exchange. This loan will allow for acquiring and installing three CT scanners, two mammography machines, one MRI machine, 35 X-ray machines, three serology centrifuges, and four angiography machines. This will be addressed with an US$85 million loan.

Fiscal Policy Strengthening Program

This project will support reforms to improve the efficiency of the tax system and the quality of public spending to foster fiscal sustainability. The financing will assist the Argentine government in reducing revenue from distortionary taxes and improving the targeting of subsidies for essential services, promoting more efficient and sustainable consumption. This loan will benefit citizens by supporting policies that enable a path to fiscal stability and inflation reduction, thereby maintaining the purchasing power of wages. The Argentine government will benefit from rapidly disbursed resources to meet reserve accumulation needs and efficiently manage public debt. This is a US$ 650 million loan.