ADB agrees to US$5 billion funds replenishment with donors

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday (May 3) it had agreed to a US$5 billion replenishment with donors for the bank’s two funds, Asian Development Fund (ADF) 14 and Technical Assistance Special Fund (TASF) 8.

The ADF is ADB’s largest source of grants for operations in its poorest and most vulnerable developing member countries, the bank said in a statement. It said the new replenishment was 22 per cent bigger than the previous one.

“More than US$2.5 billion, or 51 per cent, of the replenishment will be funded by contributions from donors including two new countries: Armenia and Georgia,” the bank, which held its annual meeting in Georgian capital Tbilisi this week, said.

A number of other top multilateral development banks including the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have secured funding injections over the last couple of years to bolster their balance sheets to provide more funding and protect their prized triple-A credit ratings. REUTERS