WASHINGTON- World Bank President David Malpass on Monday chided other development banks for lending too quickly to heavily indebted countries, saying some were helping worsen already-challenging debt situations.
Malpass said at a World Bank-International Monetary Fund debt forum in Washington that the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were contributing to debt problems.
“We have a situation where other international financial institutions and to some extent development finance institutions as a whole, certainly the official export credit agencies, have a tendency to lend too quickly and to add to the debt problem of the countries,” Malpass said.
He said the Asian Development Bank was “pushing billions of dollars” into a fiscally challenging situation in Pakistan while the African Development Bank was doing the same in Nigeria and South Africa.
A spokesman for the Asian Development Bank could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Manila-based development lender in December approved $1.3 billion in loans for Pakistan, including $1 billion for immediate budget support to shore up the country’s public finances and $300 million to help reform the country’s energy sector.
The loans came as the country is struggling with billions of dollars in debt to China from Belt and Road infrastructure projects, which helped cause Pakistan to turn to the IMF for a $6 billion loan program in 2019.
Malpass said there needed to be more coordination among international financial institutions to coordinate lending and maintain high standards of transparency.
“And so we have a very real problem of the IFIs themselves adding to the debt burden and, and there’s pressure then I think on the IMF to sort through it and look at the best interest for the country,” he said.
Malpass also said that the new Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was seeking to develop lending standards that were equal to those of the World Bank and was causing fewer problems than some of the more traditional development lenders.
Although China often gets blamed for burdening some developing economies through Belt and Road, Malpass said the country was looking for ways to bring its debt contracts in line with international norms.
One way to do this is to improve transparency in lending contracts, to eliminate non-disclosure clauses that have hidden liens and contingent liabilities that could hamper economic growth.
In an interview, Malpass cited liens against Angola’s oil revenues associated with Chinese debt that were hidden by non-disclosure agreements, convenient for politicians and contractors.
“Let the people of the country see what the terms of the debt are as their government makes commitments,” Malpass said.
The World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, the International Development Association, is implementing a new set of lending rules on July 1 as it unlocks a new round of funding expected to make some $85 billion in loans and grants available.
These are aimed at setting new standards for transparency and require coordination with other multilateral lenders working with the same country. Meanwhile, Malpass said the World Bank is offering technical assistance to China to help battle the coronavirus epidemic but no new loans.
Malpass told Reuters the bank was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to aid China, including offering advice about past health crises, but did not plan any financial assistance because China has ample resources of its own.
“My thought is that we all wish them a speedy way to address the coronavirus in China,” he said in an interview on Monday. “We’ve offered technical assistance in the area of health, sanitation and disease policies.”
Formed after World War Two to rebuild Europe, the World Bank has some $470 billion in assets and counts China among its largest borrowers, with $14.8 billion in loans committed since 2011. China is also the bank’s third largest shareholder after the United States and Japan.
“China has its own large international reserves,” and new loans are not being considered at this time, said Malpass, a former Trump administration Treasury official who took over as World Bank president last April.
China reported that it held $3.115 trillion in foreign exchange reserves in January.
In a Jan. 29 statement, Malpass expressed sympathy for losses suffered by the Chinese people, adding: “This is a severe public health challenge for China and the rest of the world. It calls for ongoing coordinated action and continued transparency inside China and around the world.”
He said the World Bank’s experts were in discussions with Chinese authorities and could provide immediate assistance on disease surveillance, food safety, lessons from previous pandemics and analysis of the outbreak’s impact on China’s economy. — Reuters
