THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved loans and guarantees totalling US$11.3 billion and disbursed US$10.4 billion to borrowing countries in the Caribbean and Latin America during 2015, according to the IDB website.The international loan agency noted that owing to its mandate to support the Region’s smaller and vulnerable economies, it devoted 50 per cent of the resources approved last year to borrowers of those characteristics, a 14 percentage point increase over the previous year.

Last year the institution noted that lending was concentrated in priority areas established in the IDB’s 2010 capital increase agreement: 39 per cent went to projects involving infrastructure and the environment; 32 per cent to institutional development; 21 per cent to social sector programmes; and 8 per cent to trade and integration projects.

During 2015, the IDB stated that it completed the process of consolidating its private sector activities into the Inter-American Investment Corporation.

The expanded IIC, which began operations earlier this month, aims to approve up to US$2.9 billion in its first year of merged activities.

In addition, the IDB began to implement an exposure exchange agreement with other multilateral finance institutions, which enables regional development lenders to lower their geographic concentration by diversifying their risk.

The IDB also took a series of administrative austerity measures, reflecting similar steps taken by many of its member countries to adjust to changing global economic conditions. These internal cost-saving efforts will continue in 2016.