With the economy stagnant and an electoral climate that arrived early, the prospects for new infrastructure investment in Argentina appear dim, except for the momentum that may come from concession projects and international loans.
“The Nation [the national government] doesn’t build even a bicycle rack,” criticized the governor of Córdoba, Martín Llaryora, at the latest logistics summit, held on October 16.
While the provinces have managed to carry out some projects with their own funds or multilateral loans, the halt in public investment by the national government and an economy that is failing to recover are putting a damper on hopes for a stronger rebound in infrastructure.
“The biggest drop is in public works,” Andrés Azicri, CEO of Vector Investments, told BNamericas. He mentioned that it will be difficult for this to be reversed too much “except for some private participation programs that the government is promoting,” where there could be some rebound.
Concessions can be a driver for attracting investment. Recently, Aeropuertos Argentina announced an investment of US$1.5 billion (bn) following the concession extension agreement.
In addition, the government awarded concessions for around 9,000km of highways and is moving forward with the privatization of Belgrano Cargas, which includes three railway lines. Even so, this week the tender lost one of its main interested parties, Grupo México, because the company was seeking an integrated concession, while Argentina is promoting the open access model.
One year before the presidential elections, the government has little room to attract more investment, except in industries that can adhere to the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI) and already show a favorable evolution, such as oil and gas or mining.
This week the first technology RIGI was approved, which corresponds to the expansion of Toyota’s plant for the manufacture of electric automobiles.
But for the rest of the economy that cannot adhere to the RIGI, electoral periods raise doubts among investors about whether there will be continuity in macroeconomic policy. Azicri said that, even so, corporate debt spreads did not rise as much as sovereign risk, but investment rates remain low.
According to Azicri, this is because “there is high uncertainty regarding what may happen next year,” with the government’s image in decline. That, he said, “will have a direct impact in the form of postponed investment decisions.”
In a recent interview, President Javier Milei admitted that the economy is not evolving as expected, which he attributed to international shocks.
The credit problem
For Azicri, one of the main obstacles is financing. “Credit in Argentina is almost nonexistent, so an economy without credit, it’s very difficult for it to function,” he said. Azicri warned that the country “has no way to finance anything, neither spending nor an increase in public works.”
According to 2025 data from the World Bank, domestic credit granted to the private sector as a percentage of GDP reaches 17.6% in Argentina, compared with 102.1% in Chile and 75.1% in Brazil.
Recently, the government promoted the use of a portion of the Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS) to foster mortgage lending. The FGS will allocate US$1.3bn to bank time deposits, on the condition that they are channeled into mortgages with a maximum rate of 7.5%. According to consultancy MAP Latam, if used in full, the program would make it possible to finance some 17,000 loans and increase mortgage lending from 0.7% to around 1% of GDP, a level it still considers insufficient.
Multilateral organizations are indeed financing projects in Argentina, although they depend on sovereign guarantees from the national government.
The province of Buenos Aires, governed by Axel Kicillof, the main opponent of Javier Milei, had already warned about difficulties in the approval of loans.
Other provinces did manage to secure loans. Neuquén, for example, will receive US$250 million (mn) in financing to improve the binational road corridor providing access to the Paso Internacional Pichachén and the intraregional corridor Loncopué–El Cholar. The IDB is also financing the road infrastructure program of the province of Entre Ríos with US$280mn. CAF approved US$160mn for roadworks in the province of San Juan.
Funds for infrastructure
Recently, the minister of infrastructure of the province of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Katopodis, announced that the province will file criminal charges against Milei and the national minister of economy, Luis Caputo, for violation of the law and national neglect in water infrastructure. “The Water Fund receives 4.31% of the Fuel Tax that we all pay and that must be allocated to flood prevention works and the recovery of productive land. In this El Niño context, this is absolutely serious,” he added.
Another infrastructure fund, the Integrated Road System (SisVial), the road component of the Transport Infrastructure System Trust Fund, also became the focus of controversy in September after the newspaper La Nación revealed that between 2024 and May 2026 it collected 1.5 trillion (tn) pesos (approximately US$990mn) but executed only 26.2% in road works, while the rest was placed in time deposits and government securities. SisVial is funded by a portion of the tax on liquid fuels.
(The original version of this content was written in Spanish)
