World Bank officials were in Paris this week in order to launch a new cycle of International Development Assistance (IDA) funding as it does every three years.
The last IDA-14 round garnered 33 billion US dollar. World Bank Chief Economist Francois Bourguignon said that trade-offs must be made in order to receive the same amount for the IDA-15 round.
Indeed among various causes, debt cancellation would cost IDA between 1 and 2 billion dollar per annum. – This means a major loss for African countries, which are the major IDA beneficiaries, said Bourguignon.
At the time of last round, donor contributions amounted to 18 billion dollar to help 81 countries.
(IDA er Verdensbankens bløde udlånsvindue, der skaffer rentefrie lån med meget lang afdragstid til verdens fattigste lande, og en af disse landes vigtigste finansieringskilder til udvikling, red.)
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
