Buenos Aires — Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa announced at a press conference in Washington two new agreements reached with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank that provide the country with additional financing for $1.3 billion by the end of the year.
The loans are essential to “strengthening reserves and finance development projects”, according to Massa, who is also presidential candidate of the Unión por la Patria coalition.
The announced loans are part of Massa’s tobjective on his trip to the United States and are part of the measures that the minister announced following the results of the primaries on August 13.
Among the agreements, Massa announced two financing programs with the World Bank. The first one is for $450 million and is focused on the social programs of the food card and the Universal Child Allowance (AUH).
The package will be “financing from the World Bank that reinforce the Social Development budget”, said Massa.
The other program consists of $200 million that will operate through the BICE bank, with the objective of pre-financing for small and medium-sized enterprises in the import and export markets.
“They will seek to guarantee access to credit for imports and liquidate foreign currency quickly for exports,” Massa said.
Regarding the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan, Massa confirmed the signing of contracts for the construction of a bridge that will join the provinces of Corrientes and Chaco, and a loan for the expansion of the installed capacity of the Salto Grande hydroelectric dam, a binational project between Argentina and Uruguay)
He also mentioned a third financing that guarantees “the increase of exports in the knowledge economy, because the IDB pre-finances companies in this sector”.
Strengthening of reserves
Massa said at the press conference in Washington that both agreements “are fundamental to strengthening reserves and finance development projects”.
He specified that they consist of additional financing (in addition to those already announced) of $1.3 billion between now and the end of the year.
“The objective is to continue accumulating reserves and rebuild in a year that is the most tragic in terms of economy for Argentina due to the impact of the drought,” Massa said.
According to a report by Geres consulting firm, as of August 15, Argentina’s central bank’s net reserves stood at negative $10.43 billion.