Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Plans to improve and broaden the use of a simplified procedure for low-value cross-border claims to recover money from abroad, so as to cut costs and paperwork for both consumers and businesses, were backed by the legal affairs committee on Thursday.

With China growing at a more moderate pace and commodity prices stabilizing at lower levels, Latin America and the Caribbean will need to adapt to a “new normal.” Average GDP growth in the region, slowing down steadily and sharply since 2011, is expected to reach only 0.8 percent this year, and may remain at low rates in the future unless ambitious pro-growth structural reforms are adopted. A boost in savings, which would need to be a key ingredient in a pro-growth agenda, would also help rebuild monetary and fiscal policy maneuvering space.

The latest World Bank Economic Monitor for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) expects GDP regional growth to remain flat at 3.1 to 3.3 percent for the rest of 2015 and for 2016. Prolonged conflict and political instability in some countries, low oil prices that are dragging down growth of oil exporters, and the slow pace of reforms are all contributing to low investment, high unemployment and—for the first time in four years—a fiscal deficit for the region as a whole.

From 2011 and 2014, 700 million people became account holders at banks, other financial institutions, or mobile money service providers, and the number of “unbanked” individuals dropped 20 percent to 2 billion adults, says a new report released on April 15.

On the occasion of the Global Conference on Cyberspace meeting in The Hague on April 15, the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) issued a statement calling on ‘the global community to build a new social compact between citizens and their elected representatives, the judiciary, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, business, civil society and the Internet technical community, with the goal of restoring trust and enhancing confidence in the Internet’.

Parliament agreed to changes to ceilings in the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2017 on Wednesday, to help fund 300 state-managed programmes, in all EU member states, that started too late to qualify for EU funding in 2014. These changes would allow €21.1 billion in unused commitment appropriations to be carried over from 2014 to 2015-17.

EU smelters and refiners importing „conflict” minerals and metals would have to be certified by the EU in order to help stem the flow of revenue to armed groups, under a draft law as amended by the International Trade Committee on Tuesday. Other amendments lay down conditions for EU recognition of industry self-certification schemes, and labelling requirements. All these amendments still need to be approved by Parliament as a whole.

Taxes on wages have risen by about 1 percentage point for the average worker in OECD countries between 2010 and 2014 even though the majority of governments did not increase statutory income tax rates, according to a new OECD report.

On April 3, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the 2015 Article IV Consultation with Mongolia.