WASHINGTON, 22 April 2009: Leading multilateral development banks announced Wednesday they will increase their support to Latin America and the Caribbean by providing as much as 90 billion US dollars during the next two years in a joint effort to spur economic growth in the region by coordinating their crisis response initiatives.
The Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IDB/IIC), the World Bank Group (IBRD, IFC and MIGA), Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) are working together to identify partnerships to increase their collective impact and explore new opportunities to protect the economic and social gains achieved in the region during the last five years.
The IDB/IIC is expected to provide 29,5 billion US dollars of the total while the World Bank Group plans to provide 35,6 billion US dollars over the next two years. In addition, CAF plans to provide 20 billion US dollars while CABEI and CDB are expected to provide 4,2 billion US dollars and 500 million US dollars respectively.
– Latin America and the Caribbean have achieved substantial economic and social progress over the last five years and we must ensure that this is not lost because of the external shock of the global crisis. We need to avoid a social and human crisis, said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick., and added:
– I welcome the close cooperation among the multilateral regional banks and the World Bank Group, and I am committed to making this common platform work as we help lay the foundations for an economic recovery.
Support from the IDB may increase further as the Bank is currently working on measures that may boost lending in the short run. The IDB has also started a process to review its capital to ensure adequate capacity to finance long-term development needs, under a resolution approved by its Governors in the Annual meeting at the end of March in Medellin.
Latin America managed to lift 52 million people out of poverty from 2002–2007 but this trend may reverse and it is important to protect the region’s social gains.
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