Providing low-interest loans

The International Development Association (IDA) is a World bank programme which lends funds at very low interest rates (0.5% over 30-40 years) to the world's poorest countries. IDA disbursed $5 billion in such "soft" loans to poor countries in the 1996 financial year. IDA programmes are funded for three-year periods by 33 donor countries. Sixty-nine countries, home to 80 percent of the world's people living in absolute poverty, are eligible for IDA loans; IDA's largest borrowers are India, China and Vietnam. The countries that receive IDA loans have an average income of $400.