The Inter-American Development Bank, the biggest source of development finance for Latin America, will have to slash its lending to the region by 60 per cent unless its members agree to stump up more capital, its president has warned.

The IDB has scrambled to increase its funding to the region amid the global crisis, disbursing almost $14bn (€9.5bn, £8.7bn) this year or about double the previous year’s amount. But in order to do so the bank front-loaded a lot of its resources, which are now set to sputter out.