Lender to LatAm, Caribbean eyes funding boost

CALGARY: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) hopes to double its loans to the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, to $3.0 billion by 2015, the US-based organization said on Saturday. The announcement came at the Washington-based IDB's annual meeting in this Canadian plains city. The private sector creates an average of 90 percent of jobs region-wide, and more than two thirds of the figures are in small and medium-sized businesses. As a whole, Latin America is forecast to grow 4.3 percent in 2011 according to IDB figures, rosier than many regions around the globe. The 48 IDB member countries last year approved a capital increase to 70 billion dollars, the biggest increase in its history. The IDB last year was pressed by donor countries such as the United States to increase help to private business, after lending more than $1.3 billion to Latin America's private sector in 2010. The institution is also under the gun to eliminate earthquake-stricken Haiti's debt, and to initiate internal reforms.