Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

* Government exploring changes to product safety laws that are over 30 years old to ensure they work for emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and 3D printing
* call for evidence to also see how e-commerce can be made safer following huge increase in online shopping during pandemic
* now the UK has full control over its laws, we can go even further than the EU to make our product safety regime one of the best in the world, exploring better regulation whilst maintaining high standards

The World Bank, acting on behalf of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), has signed a US$11.3 million grant with the State Bank of Vietnam to support the development of a commercial financing market for industrial energy efficiency investments. The total financing support from GCF also includes a US$75 million guarantee.

International Women’s Day, March 8, marks a year from the start of widespread lockdowns in response to COVID-19. As an IMF blog warned back in July, women have borne the economic and social brunt of the pandemic. With many governments preparing budgets for the next fiscal year, we now have a golden opportunity to counter this inequity. We offer a starter kit for gender budgeting to help countries focus resources on women, and ensure future budgets are better for them than previous ones.

Following two decades of sustained growth, Tanzania reached an important milestone in July 2020, when it formally graduated to lower-middle-income country status. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic has significantly slowed economic growth, adversely affecting lives and livelihoods of Tanzanians, and requiring bold policy actions to ensure that Tanzania’s LMIC status is maintained.

The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or IBRD) has issued a US$100 million 5-year bond which both supports IBRD’s ongoing sustainable development and COVID-19 activities and adds a new feature to support similar efforts by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). As countries confront the economic challenges of the pandemic, which has affected millions of children worldwide, the issuance will channel an amount equivalent to half of the total proceeds, US$50 million, to UNICEF. This frontloading of financing to UNICEF will support its pandemic response programs for children around the world over the 5-year period.

The Government of India, the Government of Chhattisgarh and the World Bank, on February 12, signed a $100 million project to develop sustainable production systems that allow tribal households in remote areas of Chhattisgarh to practice round-the-year production of diversified and nutritious food.

The World Bank, in partnership with the European Commission, will assist Poland to ensure a ‘Just Transition’ in the country’s coal regions of Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia), Śląskie (Silesia) and Wielkopolskie (Greater Poland). The project will focus on enhancing the capacity of coal regions to plan for a Just Transition through job creation, repurposing of former mining lands and stakeholder engagement.

(1) The chart provides a more comparable view of movements in US employment statistics with movements in most other OECD countries, where furloughed workers are included in official employment statistics. It should however not be interpreted as alternative official statistics for the United States.

In this chart, the number of employed covers age group from 16 to 64, while the number of unemployed on temporary lay-off covers age group 16 and over.

(2) US Current Population Survey data

Developing countries could raise much-needed public revenues, while cutting emissions and air pollution, by making better use of energy taxes and reducing energy subsidies, according to a new OECD report.

Germany’s Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Thursday the nation’s economy shrank by 5% during 2020, less than predicted, and less than elsewhere in Europe, but still the worst contraction since the 2009 financial crisis.