President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Ilan Goldfajn. - Reuters
MEXICO CITY: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a US$3.5bil capital increase for IDB Invest, its private sector arm, the bank’s head, Ilan Goldfajn says.
With the capital injection, IDB Invest’s size will double in the next few years, Goldfajn said, adding it will have more power to fund projects aimed at reducing poverty and addressing climate change.
“We need more resources to tackle global challenges, and we will only do it with the private sector,” Goldfajn said.
The capital bump will allow IDB Invest to scale its ability to channel resources to the region to around US$19bil per year from the current approximate of US$8bil, according to a statement.
Inter-American Development Bank’s board of governors also approved up to US$400mil for IDB Lab, its innovation and venture capital arm.
Taken together, the fresh capital, along with efforts by each institution to optimize their balance sheets, will enable the Inter-American Development Bank Group to increase its financing capacity to up to US$112bil over the next 10 years, the statement said.
“Our region faces a triple structural challenge of rising social demands, scarce fiscal resources and low growth, with the additional major effects of climate change,” Goldfajn said, adding the new funds will help the region address these challenges. — Reuters
