aimed at increasing mobility within regions, excluding the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. However, restrictions were subsequently tightened in response to an acceleration in infections and, in early June 2020, the mandatory lockdown was extended to other selected large cities. Another phased reopening of activities was announced in July 2020, but rising infections led to a new extension of the mandatory lockdown until mid-November 2020. As COVID-19 cases levelled off in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, the government announced a move to a stage of social distancing in the second half of November 2020. In January, after a rise in new cases, restrictions were once again tightened in some inland districts of Buenos Aires and in other, inland provinces. The number of new cases lessened in January and February 2021, with 16 provinces returning to in-school learning. However, as in other countries in the region, new cases picked up again, prompting the re-imposition of mobility and travel restrictions to limit the spread of new virus variants. The gradual vaccination rollout has accelerated since May 2021, mainly reflecting the easing of supply constraints. Throughout the pandemic, the Argentine government implemented a series of economic, political and social measures to face the impacts of the crisis and the effects of the confinement orders. Those measures included, among others: • Increased health spending, which included purchases of vaccines and hospital equipment, construction of clinics and hospitals and elimination of taxes on credits and debits for healthrelated operations; • Support for workers and groups in vulnerable situations, including increased money transfers to poor families, social security benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, and payments to minimum-wage workers; • Implementation of the Emergency Family Income (IFE, by its Spanish acronym), a payment of 10,000 Argentine pesos to informal-economy workers, monotributistas1, the unemployed and beneficiaries of the Universal Child Allowance, Universal Allowance for Pregnancy or PROGRESAR plan (educational scholarships); • Provision of credits at a 0 rate for monotributistas and the self-employed; • Increased spending on public works; • Credit guarantees for bank lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). • Freezing rents and suspending evictions for non-payment, and extending the term of rental contracts. • Suspending the interruption, for non-payment, of essential services (water, electricity, natural gas, fixed and mobile telephony and internet) for the most vulnerable households, MSMEs, cooperatives, institutions related to the health system and public welfare institutions; • In addition, the authorities have adopted policies against price gouging, including price controls for food and medical and essential supplies. 1. The term monotributista (monotax payer), commonly used in Argentina, refers to a special tax regime aimed at independent workers or small taxpayers and based on the payment of a fixed monthly fee that includes value-added tax (VAT), income tax and contributions to the pensions fund. 08 DFIs FINANCING IN ARGENTINA DURING THE PANDEMIC: COVID-19 PROJECTS AND TRANSPARENCY SHORTCOMINGS