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August 4, 2006 — The World Bank's lending commitments increased to US$23.6 billion dollars in the financial year just ended, up six percent on the previous year.
Loans, grants, credits and guarantees by the Bank's two closely affiliated entities - the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) - were up by US$1.3 billion over the 2005 fiscal year.
The figures mark an historic high for IDA, which is the largest single source of concessional financial assistance for the world's poorest countries.
IDA's commitments in the 2006 financial year reached US$9.5 billion - the highest in the organization's history. IDA was first set up in 1960 to provide interest-free credits and grants to countries with little or no capacity to borrow on their own.
Overall, IDA lending rose by nine percent compared to the 2005 fiscal year.
For IBRD - which aims to reduce poverty in middle income and creditworthy poorer countries through loans, guarantees as well as analytical and advisory services - the 2006 financial year also marked a new record.
IBRD commitments in fiscal year 2006 reached US$14.1 billion, the highest volume in the past seven fiscal years. And compared with the previous 2005 fiscal year, IBRD's loan and guarantee commitments and guarantee facilities rose by four percent.
The 2006 financial year saw a total of 279 IBRD and IDA lending and guarantee operations delivered. Of those 167 were from IDA while the remaining 112 were from the IBRD.
The bulk of the Bank's lending commitments in the past financial year were for investment operations. A total of US$16.3 billion was for investment while 31 percent or US$7.3 billion was for policy based operations.
Overall, Mexico and Brazil were the largest borrowers, followed by Turkey, Pakistan, China, India and Argentina.
And in line with that, the highest percentage of IBRD/IDA lending went to the Latin America and the Caribbean region. It received US$5.9 billion, 26 percent of the total lending.
The figures show lending commitments to Africa rose 23 percent in the past financial year.
Africa had 20 percent of total lending commitments with US$4.8 billion. Europe and Central Asia had 17 percent with US$4 billion; South Asia 16 percent with US$3.8 billion; East Asia and the Pacific had 14 percent with US$3.4 billion, while the Middle East and North Africa region had seven percent with US$1.7 billion.
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