Announcing that the World Bank will offer a bond issue of DM 400 million (US$100 million) in the German market Mr. Roberts. McNamara, the Bank's President, said: "At a time when the flow of capital aid is lessening and the dangerous gap between rich countries and poor is growing, it is essential that the World Bank expand its lending activities to prevent the development effort from grinding to a halt. Such expansion of lending demands a significant expansion in borrowing."
"The World Bank has been examining its capacity to raise in the markets the sums which are needed. I feel confident that the Bank can very substantially increase its program of borrowing and thereby expand the flow of investment funds to the developing countries."
Mr. McNamara said that the cooperative attitude of the German Government in permitting the World Bank to borrow large amounts in the German market was "most encouraging".
The issue announced today, he stated "is by far the largest non-German issue ever to be publicly offered in that country and makes the Bank by far the largest single outside borrower in the German market."
In the last two months the World Bank has entered the German market on three occasions. In July it borrowed privately DM 400 million from the Rheinische Girozentrale und Provinzialbank. Early in August it borrowed DM 258 million from the Deutsche Bundesbank to replace maturing issues and is raising a further DM 400 million through the public offering of bonds announced today.
