WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank will boost its total financing for COVID-19 vaccine purchases and deployment to $20 billion from its previous target of $12 billion, World Bank President David Malpass said on Wednesday.
The global development bank has seen a sharp increase in overall financing demand from developing countries – not just health related expenditure – during the pandemic, the bank’s managing director for operations, Axel van Trostenburg, said.
He told reporters the World Bank had made nearly $100 billion in lending commitments since the outbreak of the crisis in early 2020, well above the normal level of just under $60 billion. High demand for financing was expected to continue well into 2022, he said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; editing by Diane Craft)
