NDB plans to expand lending by 60 percent

The New Development Bank is planning to expand lending by 60 percent in 2018, aiming to grow to about $4 billion in loans from the $2.5 billion total anticipated this year, a member of the bank's top management team told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

That growth would come on top of a 60 percent increase in lending this year, if pending projects are approved as expected, according to Zhu Xian, vice-president and chief operations officer of NDB, a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS countries.

Four new projects totaling more than $1 billion are being prepared, in addition to projects approved prior to the 2017 BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September. If the four are all approved by December, "the bank's total lending in 2017 will exceed $2.5 billion," compared with $1.56 billion last year, Zhu said.