The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) today approved a $750 million loan to India to assist the government with its COVID-19 response. This is the second loan approved by AIIB for India under the COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF).
AIIB recently doubled its initial COVID-19 CRF to $10 billion in April. The CRF was created as part of the coordinated international response to counter the pandemic, "to support AIIB members’ urgent economic, financial, and public health needs and quick recovery from the crisis", the bank said.
The loan from AIIB is co-financed with the Asian Development Bank. "The budgetary support will go toward bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country’s health care systems," AIIB said in its release.
“Many of the world’s low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis but are already feeling the impacts of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty,” said AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations, DJ Pandian.
AIIB’s total sovereign loans to India that have already been approved amount to $3.06 billion, including a recent $500 million COVID-19 emergency response.
While AIIB does not have a regular instrument for policy-based financing, the Bank is extending such financings on an exceptional basis under the CRF to support its members through projects cofinanced with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, it said.