Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

In the past 15 years, employment and earnings have grown significantly in Brazil, and the labor market was the key driver for the sharp decreases in poverty and inequality. To maintain social and economic development, and sustain the accomplishments of the last decade, two goals should be at the center of labor market policy: raising labor productivity and connecting the poor to more and better jobs, says the World Bank report Sustaining Employment and Wage Gains in Brazil, launched Thursday, in Brasília, and Friday in São Paulo.

Africa’s strong economic growth has contributed to improving people’s health and education in the past 20 years as well as major reductions in poverty in several countries, but a rapid rise in population has led to increases in the overall number of extreme poor, the World Bank Group said Friday in a comprehensive report on poverty in the region.

Thirteen UK music companies together with 3 songwriters are to receive significant funding to boost their overseas touring and song-writing collaborations. Among those selected are the management company behind Catfish and the Bottlemen, winner of the BBC Introducing Award.

Addressing huge gaps in the collection of poverty data, the World Bank Group pledged Thursday to work with developing countries and international partners to ensure that the 78 poorest nations have household-level surveys every three years, with the first round to be completed by 2020.

The World Bank Group and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) have launched a program that will allow farmers to use crop receipts as collateral for payment. This new financial instrument for Ukraine will make high-quality seeds and other inputs more affordable for smaller farmers and help boost agricultural productivity.

The reforms to the pensions system in Mexico, especially the introduction of a system of individual defined contribution accounts, have significantly improved the system’s financial sustainability.

Kenya’s economy is expected to grow at 5.4 percent in 2015, recording an improvement over the 2014 growth rate of 5.3 percent, says a new World Bank Group economic report released on October 15. The growth rate in 2016 is projected to be 5.7 percent.

An extra €401.3 million in EU funding to manage the refugee crisis was endorsed by Parliament on Wednesday. The funds, proposed by the EU Commission and approved by Parliament’s Budgets Committee on Monday, would go to the EU countries hardest hit by the refugee inflow, to non-EU countries hosting most Syrian refugees and to three EU agencies handling most refugee-related tasks.