Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

On November 16, 2016, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussed a staff paper on “ Financing for Development: Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries – Further Considerations”, which identifies areas where current guidance on Fund policies needs to be clarified in regard to the access of developing countries to financial support from the Fund.

The Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) cemented its cooperation with two premier Korean institutions to help Sub-Saharan Africa build its capacity in science and technology fields.

Pregnant women and young children, many stripped of their Dominican citizenship before being pushed across the border into Haiti, are living in deplorable conditions, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 29. They are among thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent who, since mid-2015, have been forced to leave the country of their birth, including through abusive summary deportations by the Dominican government.

In 2014, the tax-to-GDP ratios of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore were below 17% of GDP compared to Japan and Korea, which both recorded tax-to-GDP ratios above 24%,according to new data released in the third edition of the OECD’s annual publication Revenue Statistics in Asian Countries.

The overall tax-to-GDP ratio, meaning the sum of taxes and net social contributions as a percentage of GDP, stood at 40.0% in the European Union (EU) in 2015, stable compared with 2014. In the euro area, tax revenue accounted in 2015 for 41.4% of GDP, slightly down from 41.5% in 2014. This is the first time since its low point in 2010 that the tax-to-GDP ratio in both zones did not increase.

The European Commission’s Start-up and Scale-up Initiative contains some positive elements mixed with others of less obvious impact.

Poland has achieved impressive progress in improving the living standards of its citizens over the past 20 years but needs to continue to move towards higher technology, boosting productivity and improving access to quality jobs and good pay, according to the OECD.
 

Access to more intensive employment services before and after dismissal could help disadvantaged laid-off workers get back into employment, according to a new OECD report.

More than 100 jurisdictions have concluded negotiations on a multilateral instrument that will swiftly implement a series of tax treaty measures to update international tax rules and lessen the opportunity for tax avoidance by multinational enterprises.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry speaks at a press conference at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland (file).