MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IDB has 3bn dollars reserve fund in the event of a major global crisis

Roberto Vellutini, ‘we are prepared’

The Inter American Development Bank, IDB, has a special reserve for emergency loans of 3 billion dollars “in the event of a major global financial crisis”, said Roberto Vellutini, IDB Vice-president following meetings in Paraguay.

Vellutini concluded on Friday a two-day meeting in Asunción with civil society representatives to promote community participation and debate current issues as development for small villages, gender equality, climate change and its effects for rural communities plus urban and rural security, among other issues.

In brief statements on the sidelines of the inclusion and participation debate, Vellutini said that the IDB has funds aside in the event of what is considered a growing probability, a major world financial crisis.

This is besides “our average lending capacity which is above the eleven billion dollars, annually”, he said.

IDB “has a reserve of 3 billion dollars for emergency loans, precisely to address possible regional consequences of major difficulties in the developed countries that could impact Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The IDB top official added that the bank also counts with an “additional reserve” in the range of 200 million dollars for the least developed countries of the region and which receive soft long term loans such is the case of Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras and Bolivia.

However Vellutini said the “use of these available funds will depend if the global crisis effectively takes place and if that crisis reaches Latin America, and if it does, we would have to assess the magnitude of those difficulties”.

Vellutini also anticipated that the IDB next General Assembly will take place in Montevideo, 16 to 19 March, 2012.