MICROCAPITAL STORY: At Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Annual Meeting, Multilateral Investment Fund Manager Donald Terry Predicts Microfinance Lending in Latin America Will Hit $20b by 2012

On Friday, April 4, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) opened its five-day annual meeting in Miami. Reuters reported on Saturday, April 5, that Donald Terry, the IADB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) manager, predicted that microfinance loans in Latin America may hit USD 20 billion by 2012, as compared to USD 8.6 billion last year. He was quoted as saying that as interest rates fall over time, “you’ll find millions of new borrowers in markets like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.”

Scheduled sessions at the annual meeting ran the gamut from governor (country representative) reports to “Celebrities and Youth as Agents of Change.” Since the opening of the meeting, IDB has released its 2007 Annual Report and a slew of press releases including:

* IDB approves record USD 9.6 billion in new operations in 2007
* IDB approves USD 80 million A/B loan to Banco Multisectorial de Inversiones in El Salvador
* IDB approves USD 20 million loan for Banco Ficohsa in Honduras

Owned by 47 member states , including 26 borrowing members, the IDB provides multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its loans and grants are intended to reduce poverty, expand growth, increase trade and investment, promote regional integration and foster private sector development and modernization in government. The IDB Group is composed of the IDB, the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the MIF.

The MIF gives technical cooperation grants intended to support private sector growth and also invests in microfinance. In 2007, the fund approved 116 grants for a total of USD 100 million and 17 investment projects for a total of USD 35 million.

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