Cape Verde has been granted funding of 6.5 million euros by the World Bank, for the purposes of budgetary support, the archipelago’s finance minister, Cristina Duarte said Monday in Praia.

In a press conference, the minister said that the agreement had been negotiated last Friday by video-conference, and that the funds would be provided to Cape Verde in the second half of the year.

Duarte noted that the World Bank loans were always subject to previous conditions and that negotiationa had been easy ebcause those conditions had been met by Cape Verde.

The 6.5 million euros have been earmarked for budgetary aid, a type of assistance that the Cape Verde's partners have focused on over the last two years, rather than funding for specific projects.

Budgetary aid increased from 2 to 3 percent of the total budget in 2005 to a current level of “7 to 8 percent,” the minister said.

The aid form the World Bank now negotiated is to be used in the next tax year (the World Bank ends its financial year in June) and is part of a 10 US$10 million annual package agreed with the World Bank for between 2008 and 2012.

Source: Macauhub