President Hugo Chávez Monday in Argentina branded as "silly" the fact that developing countries "lend money to the United States, which then grants developing countries loans at much higher rates."

"It is odd that developing countries are lending our money to the United States at 1-2 percent interest rates. They end up lending us our own money at 8-10 percent interest rate. This is a silly thing," Chávez during a speech in a hotel in Buenos Aires.

The ruler -quoting a book written by Economics Nobel Award winner Joseph Stiglitz- said "developing countries lend USD 2 billion a day," and "they do not have funds to pay" as "over the last three years, the US dollar has lost 40 percent of its value," Efe quoted.

"That is the origin of our idea to set up our own financial structure. In some years from now we will have a powerful Bank of the South and a financial fund for the south where countries in the region are to contribute their reserves to undertake our own projects," said Chávez, who arrived in Buenos Aires last Saturday to attend the inauguration of Cristina de Kirchner as the President of Argentina.