World Bank unveils data drive to spur private investment in developing nations

World Bank data disclosure: World Bank is set to unveil a sweeping initiative aimed at enticing greater private sector investment into developing countries, with plans to disclose more of its proprietary data, including insights on debt defaults, beginning next week, announced World Bank President Ajay Banga.

Speaking at China Development Forum on Sunday, Banga revealed World Bank Group's achievement of mobilising $41 billion of private capital for emerging markets and securing an ditional $42 billion from private sector for bond issuance in previous year, with expectations of surpassing se figures in current year.

Despite se significant strides, Banga emphasised need for furr vancement, citing deceleration of economic growth in developing nations to just 4 per cent from 6 per cent over past two deces. He underscored dire consequences of each percentage point lost, leing to impoverishment of 100 million people, alongside escalating debt levels.

Highlighting formidable challenge of job creation in face of a burgeoning youth population, Banga emphasised World Bank's concerted efforts to dress barriers hindering private sector investment in developing economies. To this end, bank convened a focus group comprising 15 chief executives from asset management firms, banks, and operators, who identified concerns such as regulatory uncertainty, political risk insurance, and foreign exchange volatility.

Building upon recent reforms aimed at streamlining its loan and investment guarantee structure, World Bank will triple its annual guarantees to $20 billion by 2030. Moreover, commencing next week, bank, in collaboration with a consortium of development institutions, will begin disseminating private sector recovery data categorised by country income level, aimed at bolstering investor confidence.

Banga furr disclosed plans to release comprehensive data on private sector defaults categorised by credit rating, as well as sovereign default and recovery rates dating back to 1985. se transparency measures, he asserted, align with overarching objective of mobilising greater private sector capital into developing economies to stimulate impactful growth and job creation.

Banga also outlined bank's initiative to establish a securitisation platform to facilitate flow of institutional investments into emerging markets. This platform aims to streamline investment process for pension funds and or institutional investors, aggregating large standardised investments into cohesive packages to incentivise substantial investment at scale.

Banga concluded by commending China's remarkable socio-economic progress over past five deces, lauding its achievements in job creation, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. 

(With Reuters inputs.)