CANCÚN, Mexico - The Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank agreed today to take the necessary steps to increase the Bank's ordinary capital by $70 billion, the largest expansion of resources in the Bank's history, and provide an unprecedented package of financial support to Haiti.
The capital increase will enable the Bank to double its pre-crisis annual lending to $12 billion per year.
This increase in resources will take the total capital of the Bank to more than $170 billion, maintaining the IDB as the largest source of multilateral finance to Latin America and the Caribbean and the largest of all the regional development banks.
The IDB will forgive all of Haiti's outstanding debt to support the country's efforts to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake. The IDB also will provide Haiti more than $2 billion in grants over the next decade.
Member countries committed themselves to provide $479 million to cancel Haiti's debt, convert Haiti's undisbursed loans to grants and ensure a full replenishment of the IDB's Fund for Special Operations, allowing it to meet the needs of eligible member countries and ensure its sustainability for the next decade.
"This is a tremendous vote of confidence in the direction and vision of a reformed and renewed Bank," IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno said. "We are honored with this opportunity to make a difference for Haiti at this critical time. This capital increase will allow us to redouble our efforts to help the neediest in our region."
Of the $70 billion capital increase, $1.7 billion will be paid in by the Bank's member countries over a five-year period.
The implementation of all these measures taken together will bring $2.2 billion in new cash contributions to the Bank.