In parallel to the negotiation of a loan with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank head (BM), Ajay Banga will land this Wednesday and Thursday in Buenos Aires To meet with the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and possibly with President Javier Milei. The meetings will be key to exploring additional fresh funds to those of the IMF, an amount that could define the power of fire to contain the fall of reserves and calm the markets in the previous electoral.
Finance sources confirmed the meeting this Sunday and it is not ruled out that Presidency does the same. The American Indian official will visit Argentina for the first time and will meet for the second time with the highest authorities of the current management. The agenda is expected to include the review of the current program of the bank, which today has an active portfolio of 24 projects by US $ 7,580 million In Argentina. These are the potential funds that could be disbursed in several years.
“You will talk about the Bank’s general program“said a source with knowledge. Banga supervises both the projects in the public sector in charge of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BIRF) and in the private sector via the International Financial Corporation (IFC). The BIRF is the largest development bank and the IFC, the largest global institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. The BM also manages the multilateral body guarantee agency private.
While the bank was reducing its exhibition in recent years to Argentina, the agency reactivated financial lines in recent times. Thus, despite the stop of public works, renewed projects to finance the AUH, Foster work and health with disbursements against the monthly spending of the administration. Unlike IDB, the BM allows faster disbursements to theory outside the projects, although in the latter case it depends on the IMF wink due to an agreement between the two entities.
“The possibility of new contributions is being discussed“, recognized a source aware of the conversations. The idea is that there are” net “disbursements, that is, higher than the debt repayment. The loans of the agency, in general, are paid to 12 years with a period of thanks of 5 years, so that the capital maturities begin to cancel from the fifth year. According to data from the public office of the Congress (OPC) to February, The debt with the World Bank amounts to US $ 10,000 million.
Designated by Joe Biden at the head of the World Bank in 2023, Banga was a member of the Barack Obama Cybersecurity Commission and presidential advisor of the Commercial Policy Committee. He also had an extensive step through the private sector, where he was vice president of the General Atlantic Global Investment Fund, President and CEO of Mastercard for 12 years, and honorary president of the International Chamber of Commerce. And integrated the Red Cross Board of Directors, Kraft Foods, Dow, and of the TeMek and Exor firms.
Although the head of the BM received Milei in February at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and promised to support Argentina to promote “reforms”, this week’s meeting will occur in a different context, marked by the urgency of the economic team to expand the fragile wall of dollars To placate exchange tensions. In the last two weeks, the Central Bank sold US $ 1,445 millionthe MEP dollar rose 5.5% and the monthly devaluation rate of dollar futures for June went from 2% to 3.5%.
In that context, Caputo announced Thursday that the fund will disburse US $ 20,000 million and that together with extra resources from the World Bank, IDB and CAF reserves will reach the US $ 50,000 million. Then, the deputy of La Libertad progresses, José Luis Espert, said that US $ 6,000 million they would be freely availability and US $ 14,000 million to pay debt in 4 years, and there would be An additional package of US $ 4,000 million multilateral banks. Thus, the total “fresh funds,” he estimated, would be US $ 10,000 million.
BM and IDB funds are usually tied to compliance goals, but there are also lines of free execution. The government has special interest in the latter. According to Quantum, Argentina will not face capital maturities with the IMF this year, but must cancel for that concept US $ 12,105 million between 2026 and 2028. In the case of the World Bank, the IDB, the Development Bank of Latin America (formerly CAF) and other organizations, Capital maturities from 2025 to 2028 total US $ 8,978 million.
The Secretary of Finance, Pablo Quirno, met last Friday in Chile with the head of the IDB, Ilan Goldfajn, who considered that the meeting was “excellent, ratified support to Argentina, in coordination with the IMF and World Bank and supported the measures that the Government has been implemented.