Argentina will receive over 3.8 billion dollars in assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) this year, the bank’s head announced in an interview on Sunday, complimenting President Javier Milei’s reforms.
IDB President Ilan Goldfajn commended Milei’s “remarkable progress in restoring much needed fiscal balance” in an opinion article published in the Financial Times newspaper.
Argentina generated its first quarterly budget surplus in sixteen years during the first quarter of this year.
“It hasn’t been straightforward,” Goldfajn said, referring to the draconian austerity measures taken by Milei, including deep spending cuts, which have been blamed for driving up poverty levels.
He asked the administration to “continue improving spending efficiency and redirecting resources to better support the most vulnerable Argentines.”
He declared that public expenditure “must become more equitable and efficient.”
He continued by saying that Argentina would receive over 2.4 billion dollars in public sector loans from the IDB in 2024, and that the bank’s private sector arm would finance over 20 private sector projects totalling 1.4 billion dollars. The IDB provides development assistance to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Milei used a chainsaw as a campaign symbol for cutting spending and lowering one of the highest rates of inflation in the world last year.
His shock therapy has led to a marked decline in inflation, which fell to 3.5 percent in September, its lowest level since November 2021, but have also driven the economy into recession.
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