Three international development banks are sending a new aid package to central and southeastern European countries to help them cope with the fallout from the contracting economy in the neighboring euro currency bloc.

The World Bank, European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said Thursday they will send more than $38 billion to the emerging countries to promote construction projects and corporate investment. The lenders said the assistance next year and in 2014 is “a direct response” to the difficulties caused by the 17-nation eurozone's sluggish economic fortunes.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the fallout from the eurozone's three-year governmental debt crisis threatened economic growth and jobs in central and southeastern Europe.

Seventeen countries will get the assistance: Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.