Saudi-based IDB aims to boost lending during crisis

ISLAMIC INSTITUTION: The IDB has 56Muslim-majority member states. (Getty Images)

The Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank is seeking resources to increase its lending next year to help majority-Muslim member states deal with the financial crisis, its president said.

The IDB, set up to foster economic and social development among its 56 member states, was seeking to lend more than this year's approximately $4.8 billion, Ahmed Mohammed Ali told newswire Reuters.

"We will lend at least $4.8 billion and there is a good possibility we could exceed that," he said. "We will try to do our best to increase to meet more demand from some member countries."

Ali said the bank would try to increase loans to sectors such as exporting and would seek to compensate for lower foreign investment. He mentioned member countries including Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh as possible candidates for more loans.

"We expect member countries will need more resources," he said.

The IDB, whose members are among the world's poorest - and richest - nations, was seeking to create new debt products that complied with Islamic law for donor countries to invest in, Ali said.

The bank, whose largest shareholder is oil-exporter Saudi Arabia, began a capital raising program in 2006 which once completed would boost paid-in capital by 50 percent.

The IDB said in May it was planning to offer low-cost loans to relatively-poor Muslim nations to help them stock food. (Reuters)

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