Caputo at 2017 EXPO EFI: “We are working towards the promotion of growth and credit”

The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, opened today the 5th edition of the Argentine Economic Congress, within the framework of the Argentine Exhibition on Economy, Finance and Investment, 2017 EXPO EFI, carried out today and tomorrow at the Hilton Hotel in the City of Buenos Aires.
Before investors and businessmen, the Finance Minister gave a speech entitled Opportunities and Challenges of a New Cycle and he said that: “it is inevitable to analyze where the country was a year ago” and he recalled the highlights of the agreement entered into with holdouts in the beginning of 2016.

“Thanks to that, today we are financing at the lowest nominal rates of our history”, Caputo highlighted. Likewise, he said that “if the dispute hadn’t been solved during the first quarter of the year, it would have been very hard to implement the historical restoration for retirees, and if we hadn’t eliminated the capital controls and the deductions, we wouldn’t have had a record wheat harvest”.

Within that framework, Caputo said that the objective of his team is “to develop the necessary financial conditions in order to motivate growth and credit”, and he added: “If we want a sustainable and balanced growth, we have to enable the productive sector and SMEs to have access to credit at reasonable rates”.

Mr. Minister highlighted the work done by his Ministry to coordinate the financial policies of the public bank and to strengthen the local capital market. “We are going to boost credit at better rates and longer terms, and it is not a prediction, we are already doing it”, the Finance Minister said and he added: “We are working together with Minister Frigerio to grant loans for housing, through Banco Nación, of up to 30 billion pesos, with up to 30-year terms, always having competitive rates as a reference”.

In addition, Caputo said that “currently we have a very small capital market compared to Latin-American countries. Our objective is to increase domestic savings, and in particular for SMEs that are the source of employment”. He also highlighted the importance of “encouraging people so they can start thinking on medium and long-term savings” and he emphasized “the creation of the new closed investment funds that will allow investment in infrastructure, real estate development, and renewable energy”.

Finally, Caputo said: “We know the path is long, but we also know we are in the right path. We are working so that every day we can be closer to the country we have all dreamt of”.
2017 EXPO EFI has more than 170 speakers in 85 conferences, as well as 36 workshops led by experts and directors of different companies and financial institutions that will give their points of view on the economic and financial context. Organizers estimate that more than 10,000 people will participate of the event this year.