WASHINGTON, United States, Thursday January 21, 2016 – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved loans and guarantees totaling US$11.3 billion and disbursed US$10.4 billion to borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean during 2015.
In keeping with its mandate to support the region’s smaller and vulnerable economies, the IDB devoted 50 per cent of the resources approved last year to borrowers of those characteristics, 14 per cent more than the previous year.
Last year’s lending was concentrated in priority areas established in the IDB’s 2010 capital increase agreement: 39 per cent went to projects involving infrastructure and the environment, 32 per cent to institutional development, 21 per cent to social sector programs and eight per cent to trade and integration projects.
During 2015, the IDB completed the process of consolidating its private sector activities into the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC). The expanded IIC, which began operations earlier this month, aims to approve up to US$2.9 billion in its first year of merged activities.
In addition, the IDB began to implement an exposure exchange agreement with other multilateral finance institutions, which enables regional development lenders to lower their geographic concentration by diversifying their risk.
The IDB also took a series of administrative austerity measures, reflecting similar steps taken by many of its member countries to adjust to changing global economic conditions. These internal cost-saving efforts will continue in 2016.