Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The Mani peninsula in the southern Peloponnese, Greece.

Countries are making increased efforts to develop their digital economies in a way that will maximise social and economic benefits, but now need to address the risk of disruption in areas like privacy and jobs, according to a new OECD report.

On July, 10, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Germany.

The OECD set out a clear path for Costa Rica’s accession to the Organisation, reinforcing the OECD’s commitment to further extend its global membership.

One million people in Rwanda could be lifted out of poverty, according to a new World Bank report. The country’s economy is expected to continue its growth momentum with rates projected for 2015 at 7.4% and 7.6% in 2016, according to the latest Rwanda Economic Update launched on July 15. With this growth the poverty rate is expected to decline from 63% in 2011 to 54% in 2016.

The World Bank Tuesday approved a US$230 million road project (financed by a US$200 million World Bank loan) to rehabilitate key roads that have been holding back underdeveloped regions in Tunisia. By improving road connections with the more developed coast, the Road Transport Corridors Project aims to provide greater economic and other opportunities for an estimated 373,500 residents in Tunisia’s poorer regions.

Innovative financial mechanisms in four key areas have the potential to boost crucial investment in sustainable energy by some $120 billion a year in the near term, an expert report from the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative shows.

The OECD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a new initiative to help developing countries bolster domestic revenues by strengthening their tax audit capacities.

From July 7-9, 2015, senior tax administrators and tax policy officials from 26 countries throughout Europe and Central Asia as well as experts from the WU University and the World Bank met in Vienna, Austria to share experiences and lessons learned from the emerging challenges that Tax Policymakers and Administrations face in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing. This was the 4th Conference organized under the aegis of the “Tax Administrators Exchange of Global Innovative Practices” or TAXGIP, a peer learning forum for tax administrators. The purpose of the conference is to bring together these practitioners to establish a forum for future cooperation.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday approved a new arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for SDR 4.44 million (about US$6.2 million or 60 percent of quota) for the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. The approval enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 634,285 (about US$887,308).