Caputo: “We are restoring the credibility Argentina has lost in the last years”

The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, talked this morning at the opening session of LatinFinance’s 3rd Cumbre Financiera Argentina, which took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in the City of Buenos Aires.

During an interview conducted by the President of LatinFinance, Christopher Garnett, Caputo said: “Our goal is to develop the local capital markets; we need a strong and reliable local market”. In this sense, he said: “We want to promote financial inclusion, the development of SMEs, mortgage credits and investment in the real economy”.

Likewise, Caputo highlighted: “Over the last year, we’ve accomplished some achievements by returning to the markets but we need to transfer those benefits to the rest of the economy, to the people and in particular to SMEs”, and he added: “This is fundamental in order to achieve a sustainable and balanced development; we are promoting this from the public banks in order to achieve financial inclusion”.

“The development of the mortgage credit markets is a fundamental channel with an enormous growth potential, for that reason we work in coordination with public banks”, Mr. Minister highlighted.

In addition, the Minister of Finance talked about the work done by the Central Bank: “The Central Bank makes an excellent work; it is concerned and focused on its main issue which is inflation”. He also said: “We come from an undercapitalized Central Bank, without reserves, dependent; now it is the opposite and I really appreciate it because it cooperates with financing”.

Mr. Minister highlighted the role of multilateral credit organizations: “Through the Ministry of Finance we try to look for the best, cheapest and most intelligent possible financing resource to cover the needs of the country”. In this sense, he highlighted: “We have the most ambitious infrastructure plan of our history”.

Finally, Caputo highlighted: “We have an enormous growth potential, we have to connect the capital with the projects, if we continue in this path, reducing the country risk, investment will continue growing”, and he added: “We have to keep doing what we are doing which is creating jobs, lowering inflation, reactivating the economy. We focus on these issues in order to recover the credibility Argentina has lost in the last 20 years”.

LatinFinance is the main information source about financial markets and economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, in charge of gathering the relevant data in order to identify events of immediate importance for Latin America and the Caribbean.