MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $3.5 billion capital increase in its private arm, IDB Invest, the bank's head, Ilan Goldfein, said at an event on Sunday. .
Goldfagin said the capital injection will double the size of IDB Invest in the coming years, adding that it will have even more authority to finance projects aimed at reducing poverty and combating climate change.
“We need more resources to tackle global challenges, and we're going to do it exclusively in the private sector,” Goldfein said.
The capital increase will allow IDB Invest to expand its ability to direct resources to the region from the current amount of about $8 billion annually to about $19 billion, the statement said.
The IDB Board also approved up to $400 million for IDB Lab, its innovation and venture capital arm.
Combined with the new capital and efforts by institutions to optimize its balance sheet, IDB Group will be able to expand its lending capacity by up to $112 billion over the next 10 years, the statement said.
“Our region faces triple structural challenges: growing social demands, scarce financial resources, low growth, and the significant impacts of climate change,” Goldfein said, adding that the new fund will help the region address these challenges, he added.
(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Josie Kao and Sandra Maler)
