Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The World Bank’s biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity report finds that the rate of extreme poverty in the MENA region rose from 3.8% in 2015 to 7.2% in 2018 — the latest year for which data is available. This followed another rise in poverty in the region from 2.3% to the levels in 2015. According to the report, the latest jump in poverty in MENA was driven largely by the effects of ongoing conflict in Syria and Yemen, but this does not fully account for the economic downturn in Lebanon.

The international community has made substantial progress towards reaching a consensus-based long-term solution to the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and agreed to keep working towards an agreement by mid-2021, according to a Statement released on Oct.12.

Annual inflation in the OECD area overall was stable at 1.2% in August 2020. Energy prices continued to fall in August (minus 7.1%), but at a slower pace than in July (minus 8.4%), while food price inflation picked up slightly to 3.9%, compared with 3.8% in July. OECD annual inflation excluding food and energy decreased slightly, to 1.6% in August 2020, compared with 1.7% in July.

South Asia is set to plunge into its worst-ever recession as the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the region’s economies linger on, taking a disproportionate toll on informal workers and pushing millions of South Asians into extreme poverty, says the World Bank in its twice-a-year-regional update.

Driven by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 global pandemic, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to fall to -3.3 percent in 2020, pushing the region into its first recession in 25 years, according to the latest regional economic analysis Africa’s Pulse: Charting the Road to Recovery. The pandemic could also drive up to 40 million people into extreme poverty in Africa in 2020, erasing at least five years of progress in fighting poverty.

* EIB provides EUR 47m loan to Swedish battery tech company Nilar International AB with backing from the EU’s InnovFin “Energy Demo Projects” guarantee programme.
* Financing will support Nilar in scaling up production of its unique and safe battery system as well as boost R&D in innovative battery technology.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on October 2nd, a disbursement of SDR 72.31 million (US$101.96 million or 52.1 percent of quota) to Malawi under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF).

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on September 30, a 27-month extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ecuador, with access equivalent to SDR 4.615 billion (661 percent of quota, equivalent of US$6.5 billion). The Board’s approval allows for an immediate disbursement equivalent to US$2 billion, available to the budget.