Although the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will be cutting funding to the Caribbean, President Bharrat Jagdeo says government does not expect any immediate problems.
“We don’t anticipate immediate problems because our access is fairly secure now,” Jagdeo said when asked about the issue at a press conference yesterday, though he noted that “We will see probably lower lending activities in our region, at this time when we actually need more.”
He said that over time the funds for special operations from which Guyana borrows would shrink. “So over time, maybe four or five years into the future, you’re going to be having less of an access for soft loans from then IDB,” he said.
He explained that the window for the fund for special operations, because it is subsidised credit, is limited. “But this is an overall cut for the region,” he said.
Last Friday, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno said the lender needs to increase its capital as it expects demands for loans in Latin America and the Caribbean to surge this year.
According to a Reuters report, Moreno said the bank would discuss the issue with its members at its annual meeting in Colombia at the end of the month. “In order to meet the region’s needs in a competitive and affordable way for our countries, the bank needs a bigger capital base,” he said at a meeting in Nicaragua of the members of the IDB’s board of governors from Central America and the Dominican Republic.
