From: Coalition IDB: 50 Years Financing Inequality www.frentebid2009.org
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by Campaign IDB-50:
Civil society groups across the South American continent are criticizing the Inter-American Development Bank for investment portfolio losses totaling almost $2 billion as another example of its failure to reduce poverty and inequality and contribute to sustainable development in the region.
The huge shortfall appears to derive from IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno urging the bank to invest heavily in risky securities, which as late as 2007 made up a full 50 percent of the bank's $18 billion portfolio. The overexposure to "toxic assets" was made with little apparent oversight in spite of a 2005 public warning from the bank's auditor general.
The losses dwarf those of any other development bank and are the largest the IDB has ever suffered since it was set up in 1959 to promote Latin American and Caribbean social and economic development.
Senator Richard Lugar, chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee sounded the alarm in a letter to Moreno early February commenting the reported losses of "10 to 100 times higher than the losses of the other development banks were of grave concern."
As the bank prepares to lavish tens of millions on President Moreno's native Colombia to stage a celebration of its 50th Anniversary in Medellin on March 28th, many are questioning what there is to celebrate as the region descends to new depths of poverty and inequality.
On the contrary, say civil society organizations, IDB-financed operations have contributed to widespread environmental and social damage, adversely affecting many of the region's poorest and most vulnerable communities - the very groups on whose behalf the IDB claims to operate.
Regional grassroots movements and social organizations who question the bank's policies have announced they will be present in Medellin to organize a series of alternative events in a campaign entitled "IDB 50: FIFTY YEARS FINANCING INEQUALITY IS ENOUGH!"
SOURCE Campaign IDB-50
