WASHINGTON (Reuters) – World Bank President David Malpass on Thursday suggested the Bank and donor countries should explore a possible supplemental replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) concessional lending arm, if the pandemic crisis deepens.
In a letter to U.S. lawmakers, Malpass said the huge scale and depth of the new coronavirus pandemic had already rendered a record $82 billion IDA19 replenishment that was finalized in December as too small to support crisis-hit countries.
But he rejected a call by over 300 lawmakers from around the world for the Bank and the International Monetary Fund to cancel the debt of the poorest countries outright, saying it was more important to preserve the Bank’s ability to be able to continue to provide grants or low-interest loans to those countries.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul)
