Lea Giménez, young woman shows economic growth of 4.2% in Paraguay and advocates for gender equality through her work

Lea Giménez, a woman of barely 36 years, is the Minister of Finance of Paraguay. In a country in the middle of a gender debate, she only dedicates her speech to working for the economic development of her country, which is forecast at 4.2% compared to the average 1% in Latin America. She will be representing Paraguay in the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that will take place in Washington, DC, October 9-15, 2017.

The Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. Also featured are seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world's financial system. This year's events will take place in Washington, DC, October 9-15, 2017.

Paraguay will be represented by Minister of Finance, Lea Gimenez. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Lehigh (Pennsylvania, USA), a Masters in Economics from the University of Iowa (Iowa, USA) and a BA in Economics from Emporia State University (Kansas, USA). You can read more about her curriculm here.

The interesting thing is that of the 20 ministers of Economy, Finance or Latin American, only 7 of them are educated in the United States, and among them, four have doctorates in economics. This is the case of the Paraguayan Lea Giménez. In this ranking published by BBC, she is the only woman in charge of a finance ministry in Latin America, with only 36 years of age, the youngest in the continent.

During her visit to Washington, the Minister of Finance will explain details that despite the regional situation of low economic growth and low international commodity prices, Paraguay will be the economy with the most momentum with a 4.2% compared to 1% in the rest of Latin America. He added that this has been possible thanks to the economic diversification in terms of the contribution of the sectors, and also thanks to a pro-growth fiscal policy, where Paraguay has performed -1.2% of GDP compared to -7.7% of Brazil, for example until April of this year.

Lea Gimenez said that since 2013 Paraguay has diversified its sources of financing and that the General Budget of the Nation of 2018 will be financed 53% with own resources, 37% with treasury resources and 10% with indebtedness. The issuance of Sovereign Bonds (US $ 2.38 billion since 2013) allowed the world to set its sights on Paraguay, a country that has improved its international risk rating to one step before investment grade (Ba1 / Moody's).

 Agenda

• Wednesday, October 11: Regional Dialogue on Women's Economic Empowerment, its Macro Implications and Public Policies with Santiago Levy, Vice-President of Sectors and Knowledge of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) / Meeting with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technical Assistance Policies and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Environment William Larry McDonald / Meeting with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin / Conversational Panelist on Economic Perspectives, International and Domestic Overview at Georgetown University / Meeting with Jorge Familiar, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean / Dialogue with the network of professional paraguayans in Washington.
• Thursday, October 12: Meeting with Jaime Saavedra in charge of World Bank Group World Education Practices / Technical Meeting with Jesko Hentschel World Bank Director for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay / Latin American Ministerial Summit on Health at Harvard University.
• Friday, October 13: LatinFinance's IMF Roundtable Discussion Panel.