US loses status as top World Bank donor
Saturday, December 15, 2007
THE United States lost its status as the largest donor to the World Bank, the lender said yesterday, as Britain pledged more in the latest funding round which secured a record sum for about 80 poor countries.
Losing its position as the top donor could weaken Washington's influence over the bank, which is the world's largest provider of development assistance to poor countries, and over the policies that decide how its cash is spent.
"The US is now down to second place after Britain," World Bank Vice President Philippe Le Houerou told reporters after two days of talks among donor countries in Berlin.
The Washington-based lender conducts a fund-raising campaign among its richer members every three years to determine funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the bank's lending arm.
Forty-five donor countries promised a record total of US$25.1 billion ($36.4 billion) at the talks, with a further US$16.5 billion coming from within the bank and previous donor pledges for financing debt forgiveness, said officials.
The total of US$41.6 billion, also a record, will help the poor countries with grants and loans from next summer until June, 2011 and represents an increase of US$9.5 billion over the previous funding period.
In a coup for World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who was in Beijing this week, China was one of six nations joining the list of donors for the first time, along with Cyprus, Egypt and the three Baltic states.
"This is the largest expansion in donor funding in IDA's history," Zoellick said.
The latest talks were complicated by slowing economic growth in rich nations and the weakening dollar.
The US, whose economy is almost six times as big as Britain's, has been keen to hold on to its No 1 spot as the bank's largest donor but is also struggling with a budget stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US contributions has slowly declined from 22 per cent in 1960, the year of the fund's inception. After the last round of IDA negotiations in 2005, the US share stood at 13.8 per cent and Britain's 13.2. Reuters
Losing its position as the top donor could weaken Washington's influence over the bank, which is the world's largest provider of development assistance to poor countries, and over the policies that decide how its cash is spent.
"The US is now down to second place after Britain," World Bank Vice President Philippe Le Houerou told reporters after two days of talks among donor countries in Berlin.
The Washington-based lender conducts a fund-raising campaign among its richer members every three years to determine funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the bank's lending arm.
Forty-five donor countries promised a record total of US$25.1 billion ($36.4 billion) at the talks, with a further US$16.5 billion coming from within the bank and previous donor pledges for financing debt forgiveness, said officials.
The total of US$41.6 billion, also a record, will help the poor countries with grants and loans from next summer until June, 2011 and represents an increase of US$9.5 billion over the previous funding period.
In a coup for World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who was in Beijing this week, China was one of six nations joining the list of donors for the first time, along with Cyprus, Egypt and the three Baltic states.
"This is the largest expansion in donor funding in IDA's history," Zoellick said.
The latest talks were complicated by slowing economic growth in rich nations and the weakening dollar.
The US, whose economy is almost six times as big as Britain's, has been keen to hold on to its No 1 spot as the bank's largest donor but is also struggling with a budget stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US contributions has slowly declined from 22 per cent in 1960, the year of the fund's inception. After the last round of IDA negotiations in 2005, the US share stood at 13.8 per cent and Britain's 13.2. Reuters
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