Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 17 approved a successor two-year arrangement for Colombia under the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) in an amount equivalent to SDR 3.87 billion (about US$5.45 billion). The Colombian authorities stated their intention to treat the new arrangement as precautionary and do not intend to draw on it.

Real GDP is expected to decline by 2 percent this year because of the cyclone damage to Vanuatu’s main export sectors—tourism and agriculture—which will be only partially offset by reconstruction activities and infrastructure investment.

Parliament and the Council are set to embark on informal talks to come up with a compromise on a reform of data protection rules. Although MEPs already adopted their position in March 2014, member states have only agreed an approach now. We talked to German Greens/EFA MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, who will be leading negotiations on behalf of Parliament, what the benefit of the new rules will be for consumers and companies and what issues still need to be resolved.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed Wednesday the second review of the arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with Seychelles. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 1.635 million (about US$2.3 million) bringing the total disbursements to SDR 4.905 million (about US$6.9 million).

LRT trains arriving at Sentral Station

The economic governance rules for the euro area are not working as well as they should. This is because they are too complex, lack ownership and are not consistently enforced, say Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in a resolution voted on Tuesday.

A new World Bank report released Tuesday at the Third Regional Caribbean Growth Forum, suggests that the rapidly changing environment for Caribbean exports presents both new opportunities and challenges for economies highly dependent on external markets. Despite high openness to trade of Caribbean economies, the Caribbean share in global trade fell from three percent in the 1970s to nearly a quarter percent in 2012.

Forthcoming proposals to reform EU copyright law for the digital era and EU digital single market must protect Europe’s cultural diversity and citizens’ access to it, whilst striking a fair balance between the rights and interests of rightholders and users, say Legal Affairs Committee MEPs in a non-legislative resolution voted on Tuesday.

The Capital Markets Union (CMU) should boost the efficient allocation of savings to fund businesses, protect cross-border investors and create a new channel to finance the real economy, said economic and monetary MEPs in a resolution on Tuesday. They want CMU building blocks such as diverse investment choices, risk mitigation and clear investment information across the EU to be in place by 2018 to complement bank financing.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday completed the eighth review of Jamaica’s economic performance under a program supported by a four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of SDR 615.38 million (about US$932.3 million at the time of approval).