Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Draft rules to improve the transparency of public funding for key EU ports and common rules for ports wishing to restrict the number of service providers were approved by the Transport Committee on Monday. But the committee rejected a proposed “one size fits all” EU-wide free market access rule for suppliers of port services such as towage, mooring and pilotage. Ports themselves must be able to decide how their port services are organised, so as to ensure security and safety, say MEPs.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund completed Friday the third review of Tanzania’s economic performance under the program supported by the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) on January 22.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team, led by Alex Mourmouras, visited Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Kuching during January 11-22, 2016, to conduct discussions for the 2015 Article IV Consultation with Malaysia. The team exchanged views with senior officials of the Government of Malaysia and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), and met with representatives from the private sector, think tanks and academia.

Continuing a longstanding cooperation, AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (LitRail) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a EUR 68 million loan in support of the modernisation of rail infrastructure and rolling stock in Lithuania.

Respondents to the ECB’s Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF, Q1 2016) have revised their inflations expectations for 2016 downwards by 0.3 percentage point to 0.7 percent, mainly reflecting oil price developments. Inflation is expected to pick up further in 2017 to 1.4% and in 2018 to 1.6%. The longer-term inflation expectations (for 2020) stand slightly reduced at 1.8%. In the short term, respondents expect a strong dampening impact on inflation from the latest oil price developments, counteracting favourable base effects arising from past developments. However, most SPF respondents continue to envisage a strong pick-up in inflation in 2016 and 2017, including a profile of gradually increasing underlying inflation which is shaped by the ongoing expansion of economic activity and supported by the monetary policy stance. The weaker euro exchange rate in 2015 is expected to exert some upward pressure on inflation in 2016 as well.

On December 16, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation and Third Post-Program Monitoring with Moldova.

On January 6, 2016, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV Consultation with Malta and endorsed the staff appraisal on lapse-of-time basis.

Virtual currencies (VCs) and especially their underlying technologies are a potentially important advance for the financial sector that could increase efficiency and financial inclusion, but can also serve as vehicles for money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax evasion.

Workers in a Ready-made Garments factory in Bangladesh.