MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IDB changes mind, and is again prepared to extend development loans to Argentina

Claver-Carone’s letter followed in effect a first tumultuous weekend when Economy minister, Martín Guzman with an international reputation, resigned

Only last Monday Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Inter American Development Bank, IDB, published a letter in the Wall Street Journal blasting “Argentina's tumultuous financial record”, adding that IDB ”cannot rubber-stamp loan requests, without prudently ensuring it has a development impact.”

Claver-Carone’s letter followed in effect a first tumultuous weekend when long standing Economy minister, Martín Guzman with an international reputation, unexpectedly resigned, and was followed by a raft of new names in the different posts including a rather shy, little known economist, Silvina Batakis head of the critical Economy ministry. Markets plunged and the Peso lost 30% of its value against the US dollar in two weeks.

However this last weekend there was again another reshuffle, Batakis was ousted on return from Washington where she promised to comply with an IMF agreement arguing she had the support from the three most important figures of Argentine politics, president Alberto Fernandez, vice-president Cristina Fernandez and head of the Lower House, Sergio Massa.

In the new chapter, Massa will become a “super minister” unifying Economy, Production and Agriculture, and will announce his team on Tuesday. Markets reacted positively, for now.

IDB chief also praised the new power scheme and gave the green light for two loans in the pipeline for Argentina, one of them US$ 1,14bn to decarbonize the country's energy sector and a second, US$ 75 million to improve the drinking water service in the province of Buenos Aires.