The Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, says it provided nearly US$23.4 billion in new financing approvals, commitments and private-sector mobilisations for Latin America and the Caribbean last year, one-tenth of which flowed to Haiti.

In a statement, the IDB said the funds, which included distributions by its private-sector arm, IDB Invest, beat the previously reported initial estimates for financial assistance to the LAC, and that the figure reflects additional and updated numbers, including commitments and mobilisations, partnerships, and grants to French-speaking Haiti.

Haiti received US$245 million last year, four times the US$60 million doled out in 2020 and more than double the US$119 million deployed in 2019.

“The new record includes IDB Invest’s mobilisation of more private funding in 2021 – almost US$3 billion – than during any year in its history,” said the development bank.

“The total also includes record or near-record levels of IDB funding approvals in priority areas for the region’s recovery and sustainable, inclusive growth, including health and the COVID-19 response, climate change, supply chains and digitalisation,” the IDB added.

The IDB and IDB Invest reported in December that they expected combined approvals and commitments for 2021 to total nearly US$20 billion, and US$22.3 billion when including IDB Invest’s mobilisation figures. The figures have since been revised upwards.

“The updated US$3 billion mobilisation figure for IDB Invest replaces the previous estimate of US$2.8 billion. Combined with revised commitment figures from IDB Invest and newly included financing by the IDB and IDB Lab, the 2021 total amounts to the largest sum of funding ever posted by the institutions in a given calendar year,” the Washington-based bank said.

IDB also said it hit record levels of distributions for both climate-related projects at US$4.5 billion, and financing to strengthen regional supply chains at US$2.3 billion.

CMC