Our President's Vision, Dealing with Debt, Aging and Finances

Our President's Vision, Dealing with Debt, Aging and Finances

January Highlights

Ilan Goldfajn



“In the end, what truly matters is not only how many loans we approve or even how much we lend. What is paramount is tangible, measurable development impact.”
- Ilan Goldfajn



In his inaugural address, new IDB President Ilan Goldfajn identified social issues, climate change, and physical and digital infrastructure that boosts integration and productivity as priority areas for the Bank’s work in the years ahead, as the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean navigate overlapping challenges and seek out new solutions. He also emphasized gender, diversity and inclusion as a cross-cutting issue and stressed the need to expand work with the private sector.

In better addressing its own needs, the region could also help relieve global pressure points, including food insecurity and the need for clean energy, the president envisioned.

To help get there, Goldfajn also laid out his goals for an IDB that is more effective, more driven by data, and a better facilitator of dialogue and consensus in a time of polarization.

“My vision is to build on the Bank’s legacy to ensure that the IDB is the most important multilateral development institution for Latin America and the Caribbean. We must be the region’s most trusted partner. A center for expertise and knowledge. A beacon of innovative solutions to our region’s challenges,” he said.

Read more and watch the address here.




Currency and bills

Total debt in Latin America and the Caribbean has risen to some $5.8 trillion, nearly doubling since 2008. Public-debt ratios ballooned during the pandemic to an average of 70% of GDP. In response, the region's governments should work to reduce that figure to 46-55%. Doing so would boost economies, enable productive investment, and reduce the risk of a debt crisis.

That’s according to the latest edition of the IDB's flagship “Development in the Americas” report series, which scans an economic landscape also impacted by the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, high inflation and rising interest rates.

The study provides policy recommendations to strengthen fiscal institutions, implement fiscal consolidation, improve debt management and assist firms. The goal: to turn debt into an engine for growth.

Read more.




Panama City

Panama City, Panama, will host this year's Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the IDB and IDB Invest on March 16-19.

The governors, who are ministers of finance or other high-ranking authorities from the Bank's 48 member countries, will discuss development priorities and goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For agendas, streaming and additional information to come, watch this space.




Truck in route

Brazil: $260 million to improve vulnerable housing in Recife

  • Communities to gain more access to infrastructure, facilities and social services; beneficiaries include 4,000 families living in flood- and landslide-prone areas.

Guatemala: $175 million to enlarge main route for exports

  • The project, financed by the IDB and Spain, aims to boost competitiveness of value chains, while directly benefiting 25,000 people.

El Salvador: $100 million to expand credit for small businesses

  • Program designed to reduce reliance on informal lending; 30% of funds to go to MSMEs led or owned by women.

Argentina: $30 million to help lessen toll of cyberattacks

  • Funding will step up protection for public institutions and their technology infrastructure.

Trinidad and Tobago: IDB Invest enables Caribbean’s first social bond

  • Proceeds will finance mortgages for lower- and middle-income families and individuals.




Featured Fact

Elder couple

The demographic future facing the region will usher in new challenges, but also major opportunities, in both the public and private sectors. That includes banks and financial institutions, which must adapt to serve older clients with better products and services.

“Silver Finance: Reversing Financial Exclusion” outlines ideas to create solutions for the financial needs of older populations, drawing on examples from banks around the world as well as emerging actors in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Many of those actors are supported by our innovation laboratory, IDB Lab, and our private-sector branch, IDB Invest, both early leaders in this area of development.

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