MANILA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday approved a 100 million U.S. dollars grant to help the government of Afghanistan respond to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manila-based bank said Afghanistan's economic outlook has deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic because of business lockdowns, a sharp drop in household incomes, and a downturn in regional trade and remittances.

To mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic, the ADB said the government rolled out its comprehensive countercyclical pandemic response package of 633.9 million U.S. dollars, comprising health, social protection, and macroeconomic stabilization measures.

The ADB said its COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) Program grant will support the delivery of the government's response package.

The CARES Program is funded through the COVID-19 pandemic response option (CPRO) under ADB's Countercyclical Support Facility. CPRO was established as part of ADB's 20 billion U.S. dollars expanded assistance for developing member countries' COVID-19 response announced in April.

In May, the ADB approved a 40 million U.S. dollars emergency assistance grant for Afghanistan. Enditem

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