Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Nicosia during March 27–31, 2017, for the first post-program monitoring (PPM) discussions since Cyprus exited the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility.

The Western Balkans region created 300,000 additional jobs between 2010 and 2016, or an overall increase in employment of about six percent. This is good news, but the rate of increase needs to accelerate in order to have a more significant impact on high unemployment and wide-spread inactivity. This is according to the new Western Balkans Labor Market Trends 2017 report launched by the World Bank and the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), on April 4th.

Pacific Island countries will have better access to catastrophe insurance to reduce financial impacts in the aftermath of natural disasters, including major cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, as a result of a new regional disaster risk finance project launched in Fiji, on March 31th.

The World Bank Board on March 30, approved US$100 million to help India increase its power generation capacity through cleaner, renewable energy sources. The Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project will establish large scale solar parks in the country and support the Government of India’s plans to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power out of a total renewable-energy target of 175 GW by 2022.

A pump operator for Nusra works near solar panels. Nusra is an NGO working to bring solar irrigation to farmers and solar home systems to families in Rohertek, Bangladesh.

Conference of Presidents after the UK government’s triggered of Article 50 TEU

A delegation of World Bank Group Executive Directors visited Kosovo on March 27-28 to engage with Government and other stakeholders on Kosovo’s development priorities and, in particular, the importance of energy sector reforms and regional energy market integration. The visit to Kosovo was part of a broader tour of the Western Balkans region.