IDB provides loan to Honduras

A fifty million dollar soft loan has been approved for Honduras by the Inter-American Development Bank for relief, reconstruction and community development following hurricane Mitch. The IDB loan, which will have a forty-year repayment term, will have an interest rate of only one percent over the first ten years and two percent after that. The funds are to be used for low income groups and providing immediate relief, the reconstruction of basic infrastructure and local development. The bank says this latest loan will bring their total emergency financing to Honduras to one hundred and fifty-eight million dollars. Other loans are being made to Nicaragua, Guatemala which were also affected by Mitch and the Dominican Republic which was hit by Hurricane Georges in September.