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MANILA, Philippines - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday that funding for its concessional loan facility will increase nearly 10 percent to $12.4 billion as the bank seeks to promote inclusive growth in low-income countries and shield them from financial crises.
The Asian Development Fund (ADF), which provides grants and concessional loans to the region's poorest countries, is replenished every four years, with the funding during the last financing cycle of 2009-2012 at around $11.3 billion.
"ADF borrowers face significant development challenges and have fewer resources of their own to address them," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said in a briefing.
"Despite difficult fiscal situation in traditional donors, we have been able to secure larger resources, larger than ADF 10."
The replenished ADF, as well as a planned doubling of the Chiang Mai Initiative fund to $240 billion, would help the region weather any impact from the euro zone crisis which Kuroda said continues to be a risk to growth in Asia.
While the region has made progress in reducing poverty, the benefits of growth have yet to reach several hundreds of millions in Asia who continue to subsist on less than $1.25 a day, Kuroda said.
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