27 countries seek crisis relief funds from World Bank since Iran war starts

Since Iran war started, 27 countries have sought crisis instruments that could quickly access funding from existing World Bank programmes, according to an internal document viewed by the Reuters.

The World Bank document did not name the countries or the total amount of funds potentially being sought. The war has adverse impact over the economies and resulting disruption of global energy markets have hit global supply chains and prevented vital fertiliser shipments from reaching developing countries.

The 27 countries are among 101 that had access to some form of pre-arranged financing instrument that they could tap in a crisis, including 54 that signed up to the Rapid Response Option, which allows countries to use up to 10% of their undisbursed financing.

World Bank President Ajay Banga last month said the bank’s crisis toolkit would allow countries to draw on pre-arranged contingent financing, existing project balances and fast-disbursing instruments to access an estimated $20 billion to $25 billion.

He said the bank could also reorient parts of its portfolio to bring the total to $60 billion over six months, with further longer-term changes possible to bring the total to around $100 billion.

At the time, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said she expected up to a dozen countries to seek $20 billion to $50 billion in near-term assistance from the global lender. But few requests have been logged, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has also said that the lending institution expects around 12 countries to request for 20 billion to 50 billion dollars funding.