Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a US$55 million International Development Association (IDA)* credit for a Resilience Development Policy Operation for Madagascar to support efforts by the Ministry of Finance and Budget in improving the efficiency of public finance management.

On December 8, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussed the staff paper “Reforming the Fund's Policy on Non-Toleration of Arrears to Official Creditors” and the supplementary information issued prior to the Board meeting, which amended and clarified the staff’s initial proposal.

The World Bank Group Board of Executive Directors Thursday discussed a three-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Mali and approved an International Development Association* (IDA) credit of US$50 million for the Second Recovery and Governance Reform Support Operation.

OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates, s.a.

(1) The United Kingdom figures refer to August 2015 data compared to July 2015 and August 2014 data.

On November 13, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Fourth Post-Program Monitoring (PPM) with Sri Lanka.

Recent economic developments reflect a more challenging external environment as well as a sharpening of macro-financial imbalances that began to emerge late in 2014. During the first half of 2015, growth picked up to 5.6 percent versus 4.5 percent in 2014. Headline inflation fell to -0.3 percent in September before rising to 1.7 percent in October, while core inflation (excluding fresh food, transport, and energy prices) has risen since the beginning of 2015, reaching 4.4 percent in October.

Following successive years of political stability and strong economic growth, Zambia’s growth is expected to fall below 4% in 2015 after years of 6.4% average growth between 2010 and 2014, according to the sixth World Bank Zambia Economic Brief.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved Wednesday a US$50 million loan for the Third Development Policy Financing (DPF-3) for Armenia to support a wide range of reforms promoting fiscal, social and environmental sustainability and strengthening competitiveness. This is the third in a programmatic series of four DPFs, supporting the Government of Armenia in meeting its strategic objective of job creation, which is the country’s overarching development challenge.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Wednesday completed the eighth and last review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement for Côte d’Ivoire. The completion of the review enables the immediate release of SDR 48.78 million (about US$67.7 million), bringing total disbursements under the ECF arrangement to SDR 520.32 million (about US$722.2 million).

As the U.S. Federal Reserve considers an imminent rise in interest rates ahead of 2016, emerging markets face their fifth consecutive year of slowing growth and a possibly longer period of sluggish performance than previously thought, according to a new World Bank Policy Research Note: Slowdown in Emerging Markets: Rough Patch or Prolonged Weakness?

Thousands of Batswana rose out of poverty thanks to increased growth in rural areas driven in part by rising agricultural incomes and welfare improvements, according to a World Bank Study released Tuesday in Gaborone.