BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
According to the quarterly reviews of the Eurasian Development Bank based on information from 15 international development banks, in 2020 these institutions approved financing in Central Asian countries in the amount of more than $8.3 billion - one and a half times more than in 2019, Trend reports with reference to the analytical portal ranking.kz.
Of these, 80.4 percent, or $6.7 billion, accounted for sovereign funding, technical assistance, and grants. The volume increased 2.1 times over the year, the share also increased significantly (in 2019 the share was 57.4 percent).
At the same time, the share of financing in the private sector decreased from 42.6 percent in 2019 to 19.6 percent in 2020: $1.6 billion, which is 29.9 percent less than a year earlier.
In terms of countries, Uzbekistan received the largest amount of financing from international development banks in 2020: $4.3 billion, of which $3.8 billion fell on sovereign loans, technical assistance, and grants, and $512 million went to private sector financing.
Next comes Kazakhstan with a volume of funding of $2.8 billion, of which $1.8 billion was borrowed by sovereign loans, another $1 billion - the financing in the private sector.
Financing of international development banks in Tajikistan for 2020 amounted to $740.9 million, in Kyrgyzstan - $508.2 million, in Turkmenistan - only $38.2 million.
Among international development banks, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the largest amount of financing in the CA countries - $2.7 billion; followed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) - $2.1 billion, as well as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) - $1.5 billion. These institutions accounted for almost three-quarters of the total funding.
Almost the entire volume of funds from ADB, IBRD, IDA, and AIIB fell on sovereign financing, the share of institutions amounted to 92.7 percent.
The largest volume of financing in the private sector fell on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - $881.2 million, followed by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) - $598.4 million and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - $120.5 million.
The share of these financial institutions amounted to 97.8 percent of the total volume of investment and project financing.
Among the CA countries, just over half of the amount of approved financing from international development banks is accounted for only by Uzbekistan, and another third - by Kazakhstan.
The volume of financing in Uzbekistan increased by 76.7 percent over the year, while in Kazakhstan - by 35.4 percent. At the same time, sovereign financing, technical assistance and grants in Uzbekistan increased by 64.7 percent, and in Kazakhstan - from $1 million suddenly to $1.8 billion. Financing in the private sector in Kazakhstan decreased by 2 times, while in Uzbekistan, on the contrary, it increased by 3.8 times.
The largest international development institutions that approved financing in Uzbekistan in 2020 were the IBRD and IDA: $1.6 billion, of which $500 million each went to the Agricultural Modernization project and a sovereign loan under the Development Policy Support Project.
Next comes ADB: $1.3 billion, of which $ 500 million to help mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In turn, the largest development banks that approved financing in Kazakhstan were ADB ($1 billion) and AIIB ($750 million). ADB provided funding to mitigate the social, economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the AIIB approved a loan to provide budgetary support to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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