Our President's Vision, Dealing with Debt, Aging and Finances
Inter-American Development Bank
At the Inter-American Development Bank we work to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean.
January Highlights
“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.
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.
领英推荐
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.
Featured Fact
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.