The Ministers of Finance and Economy of Ibero-America agreed to promote mechanisms and tools that allow increasing access to financing facilities for middle-income countries, in order to invest in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the VII Ibero-American Meeting of Ministers of Finance and Economy of the Ibero-American Conference, held in person and virtually in Santo Domingo, they urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to promote a more equitable distribution of Special Drawing Rights ( SDR) among middle-income countries, for example, through a trust fund.
They also advocated that multilateral development banks, which operate in Latin America and the Caribbean, can be authorized holders of SDRs in the IMF, as there are none in the region so far.
In his opening remarks at the event, President Luis Abinader assured that “unequal access to financing affects the ability of countries to guarantee sufficient vaccines at affordable prices, which implies different rates of immunization and consequently a disparate recovery that could even increase plus inequality ”.
President Abinader also proposed that multilateral development banks and some from developed countries can lend to special projects of public-private alliances or public trusts without being considered sovereign debt.
On his side, the Dominican Finance Minister, Jochi Vicente, added that “unequal access to credit markets that middle-income nations have historically had, has currently limited fiscal space.”
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