| Summary: | The report provides a detailed assessment of the road sector in Argentina, evaluating the expenditure of public resources in this context and informing possible improvements to the current situation. Given that the information available is limited, the report will mainly focus on the roads classified under the National Network, and will provide recommendations for the provincial and municipal roads when possible. The report starts with an introduction which serves to identify the context of the country and the main issues. This introduction describes the recent volatile financial periods in Argentina, with a macroeconomic context that has experimented several shocks in the recent decades and is currently impacted by the severe depreciation of the national currency and high inflation. This has led to higher transport costs, which are hampering potential growth, commercial exchanges and access to services. In addition, territorial inequalities in the country cause visible differences between regions, also in terms of the road network connectivity and logistics performance. Besides these factors, the road network is also affected by an increasingly more hazardous climate, as extreme natural episodes causing disruptions have been observed more frequently and intensely in Argentina in recent times. To face all these constraints, the Government of Argentina presented an ambitious National Plan over the period 2016-2019, with important public investments in road transport, but with a highly limited private participation due to the macroeconomic context and the lack of enabling policies
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