WASHINGTON, USA – The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) supports the initiative of the president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, to protect life and reduce the impact on the economy, middle-income developing countries must access financing in exceptional conditions.
“In line with what was announced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), I call for budgetary support rates to be zero and fixed, as well as long-term,” said president Alvarado.
This initiative is one of the IMF’s policy recommendations indicating that measures to face the COVID-19 pandemic must prioritize life and avoid breaking value chains with initiatives such as the transfer of cash and soft loans to homes and businesses.
The general secretariat agrees with the fact that you cannot have a healthy economy without a healthy population, and that countries must continue with the essential measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 while prioritizing health spending and attention to populations in vulnerable situations. Similarly, controls on the export of medical supplies and food must be ended.
The Secretariat also agrees that livelihoods must be protected and that countries must prevent liquidity problems from turning into solvency problems. For this, it is essential to give oxygen to companies and households, with measures ranging from cash transfers to credit guarantees and adjustments to the terms of the loan.
Along the same lines as president Alvarado, the OAS General Secretariat calls on developed countries to capitalize multilateral financial institutions so that they not only provide loans under exceptional conditions but also non-reimbursable funds to developing countries to face the health contingency and its consequences on the health of the population, living conditions and the productive apparatus.
