Eurasian Development Bank plans to borrow up to $1bn in 2021

MOSCOW: The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) plans to borrow the equivalent of up to $1 billion in 2021 to finance its projects, and is exploring the option of green bonds as it seeks to diversify its funding sources, its board chairman said.

Majority-owned by Russia and Kazakhstan and also present in Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the EDB raised $537 million in dollar equivalents in 2020.

Next year it plans to raise 10 billion roubles ($136 million) and 50 billion Kazakh tenge ($119 million) along with several hundred million dollars and euros, said chairman Nikolai Podguzov.

"All in all, borrowings could reach up to $1 billion," he told Reuters in an interview.

The share of the EDB's investments in Belarus will exceed $1 billion, or more than 25% of the overall portfolio, with an imminent 100 million euro loan to electricity supplier Minskenergo, - up from 9.2% in late 2018, Podguzov said.

This year Belarus also received $500 million from the EDB's development and stabilisation fund to help counter the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Belarus has faced an economic and political crisis that pushed its currency to all-time lows, following the re-election of long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko in August in a vote that his opponents and western countries say was rigged.

Podguzov said the economies of all countries under the EDB's remit contracted in 2020.

The bank expects Russia's economy to shrink by around 4% this year and grow 3.2% in 2021, with the equivalent forecasts for Kazakhstan -3.0% and 4.4%.