IDB drafts two-year Venezuela plan, says electricity and social needs are key

Sept 21 (Reuters) – The Inter-American Development Bank is drawing up ​a two-year engagement plan for Venezuela focused partly ‌on electricity and social protection, IDB President Ilan Goldfajn said on Monday.

“We are, of course, reengaging,” Goldfajn told Reuters ​in an interview. “We have missions to Venezuela, looking ​at the situation, dealing with the macroeconomic framework, ⁠looking at the data and devising an engagement ​note, a document where we can say this is ​what we plan to do in the next two years.”

The IDB is the largest development lender in Latin America and the ​Caribbean and has 48 member countries, including 26 ​borrowing members in the region. It stopped making new loans to ‌Venezuela ⁠in May 2018 after the country fell behind on payments, and still has about $2 billion in outstanding Venezuelan loans.

Goldfajn did not say how Venezuela’s arrears would ​be addressed ​or when ⁠financing could resume.

“We are still in the moment of planning and working with Venezuelans, ​engaging and going to the missions, and ​seeing ⁠how we can work with them,” he said.

Asked whether the IDB was preparing its own debt-sustainability analysis for ⁠Venezuela, ​Goldfajn said it was instead ​concentrating on the country’s macroeconomic framework and requirements across individual sectors.