Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Pakistan has a great opportunity to become more ambitious in reforming its economy so that more people are lifted out of poverty more quickly and prosperity is more widely shared among its people, said World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim.

In response to a request from UK Skills Minister Nick Boles and UK Minister for Culture and UK Digital Economy Ed Vaizey, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) conducted a review of publicly funded digital skills in further education.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Bankia signed this morning a EUR 500 million loan contract designed to facilitate access to credit for SMEs and midcaps. Bankia will match the loan with a further EUR 500 million, meaning that a total of EUR 1 billion will be made available for financing Spanish businesses under this agreement.

The European Central Bank (ECB) publishes the Eurosystem’s aggregate net financial assets and explains the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA).

UK Business Minister Anna Soubry on 5 February announced that Loughborough University has been awarded nearly £10 million of government funding to create a new open access National Centre of Excellence in Gas Turbine Combustion Aerodynamics. The centre will allow UK industry to access state-of-the-art facilities and will lead research and technology development in gas turbine combustion - a central feature of large jet engines.

Undeclared work represents a major problem in Europe, which accounted for 18.4% of the EU's gross domestic product in 2012. Not only do governments miss out on revenue, but workers are also less protected. On 2 February MEPs approved a proposal to establish a European platform to tackle the issue.

Consumer prices, selected areas

December 2015, percentage change on the same month of the previous year

In times of weak growth and limited fiscal resources government policies that promote greater domestic competition and improve the regulatory environment could lift growth and support poverty alleviation, says the South Africa Economic Update released by the World Bank on February 2.

One of the largest regional conferences on the importance of data for better macroeconomic policies was concluded Tuesday in Accra, Ghana. Organized by the Government of Ghana, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the conference brought together policymakers from over forty African countries as well as representatives from academia, banks, rating agencies, think tanks, and international organizations.

Parliament endorsed draft EU legislation establishing a “European platform” to enhance cooperation in combatting undeclared work in a vote on Tuesday. The platform would enhance cooperation among EU member states' labour ministries, trade unions and employers' associations about how best to tackle a problem that is damaging the EU economy and distorting the labour market. The undeclared economy accounts for 18% of EU GDP.