UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday evening at the Argyle Airport in St. Vincent that many of the economies of the continent are in deep trouble and called for reform of the international financial institutions.
Guterres, who is in St. Vincent for the CELAC Summit, said the COVID has devastated the world, and the truth is that developed countries like his in the European Union were able to print money in large quantities to support their people and their economies. However, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the overwhelming majority, could not print money because if they did, their currencies would suffer enormously, thus leading them to borrow in order to solve the problems of their people and their economies after the COVID.
“We see now that so many economies on this continent are drowning in depth, and we see that an unfair, ineffective, and outdated international financial architecture has proven unable to support these countries in this moment of distress.”
“To make things worse, with the war in Ukraine and with other impacts, prices went up, and interest rates went up. The impact on the economy has been terrible, but many of the economies of the region are middle-income countries, and middle-income countries have no access to concessional funding, and they have no access to debt relief. That is effective.”
Guterres said it’s time for a reform of our international financial institutions.
“It’s time for a new Bretton Woods movement, in which developing countries can see an international financial system able to address the enormous challenges that they face,” the UN Chief said.
