Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The economy has stabilized in 2016, but significant economic recovery and growth have not yet taken hold due to limited reform momentum, weak external demand, and the continuing conflict, according to the World Bank’s latest Ukraine Economic Update. Real GDP recovered very slightly (growing by 0.8 percent) in the first half of 2016, compared to a contraction of 16 percent in the first half of 2015.

On September 2, 2016, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the 2016 Article IV consultation with the Republic of Belarus.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team led by Mr. Geremia Palomba, IMF Mission Chief for Namibia, visited Windhoek during September 8-21, 2016 to conduct the 2016 Article IV Consultation discussions with Namibia.

Weak trade growth and financial distortions are exacerbating slow global economic growth, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

“IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde met on September 21 with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings. During the meeting, they discussed Iraq’s IMF-supported economic reform program that was approved by the Executive Board on July 7, 2016.

Poverty reduction among households in agriculture accounts for 79 percent of national poverty reduction from 2006 to 2013. According to the World Bank Group’s latest Poverty Assessment, the proportion of the Ugandan population living beneath the national poverty line declined from 31.1 percent in 2006 to 19.7 percent in 2013. Similarly, the country was one of the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce the share of its population living on $1.90 PPP per day or less, from 53.2 percent in 2006 to 34.6 percent in 2013.

Today, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will co-chair a high-level panel discussion on the Global Concessional Financing Facility, a new effort to address refugee crises in middle income countries across the world that U.S. President Barack Obama announced at the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, on September 20th.

The Presidents of France and South Africa called for urgent investments globally to create new jobs in the health sector in order to prevent a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers primarily in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and help countries to maximize the social and economic benefits of increased health employment, on September 20.

OECD countries need to address the growing anti-immigration backlash and reinforce migration and integration policies while fostering international cooperation in this area, according to a new OECD report.

Early Estimates of Quarterly Unit Labour Costs
Seasonally adjusted data, Total economy