Manila: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday tripled the size of its response to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to 20 billion dollars and approved measures to streamline its operations for quicker and more flexible delivery of assistance.
The package expands ADB’s 6.5 billion dollars initial response announced on March 18, adding 13.5 billion dollars in resources to help ADB’s developing member countries counter the severe macroeconomic and health impacts caused by COVID-19.
The 20 billion dollar package includes about 2.5 billion dollars in concessional and grant resources.
“This pandemic threatens to severely set back economic, social, and development gains in Asia and the Pacific, reverse progress on poverty reduction and throw economies into recession,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa.
“Our expanded and comprehensive package of assistance, made possible with the strong support of our board, will be delivered more quickly, flexibly and forcefully to the governments and the private sector in our developing member countries to help them address the urgent challenges in tackling the pandemic and economic downturn,” he said in a statement.
ADB’s most recent assessment released on April 3 estimates the global impact of the pandemic at between 2.3 and 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product. Regional growth is forecast to decline from 5.2 per cent last year to 2.2 per cent in 2020.
The new package includes the establishment of a COVID-19 pandemic response option under ADB’s countercyclical support facility.
