WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it has approved loans and guarantees totaling US$11.3 billion and disbursed US$10.4 billion to borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean during 2015.

The lending agency says in an effort to fulfill its mandate to support the region’s smaller and vulnerable economies, it devoted 50 per cent of the resources approved last year to borrowers of those characteristics, a 14 percentage point increase over the previous year.

The IDB said last year’s lending was concentrated in priority areas established in the 2010 capital increase agreement.

Of this amount, 39 per cent went to projects involving infrastructure and the environment, 32 per cent to institutional development, 21 per cent to social sector programs, and 8 per cent to trade and integration projects.

During 2015, the IDB completed the process of consolidating its private sector activities into the Inter-American Investment Corporation (ILC).

The expanded IIC, which began operations earlier this month, aims to approve up to US$2.9 billion in its first year of merged activities.

In addition, the IDB said it began to implement an exposure exchange agreement with other multilateral finance institutions, which enables regional development lenders to lower their geographic concentration by diversifying their risk.

The bank also took a series of administrative austerity measures, reflecting similar steps taken by many of its member countries, to adjust to changing global economic conditions.

“These internal cost-saving efforts will continue in 2016,” the IDB said.