Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

ECB President Mario Draghi at the Economics Committee to discuss monetary dialogue and the bank's new quantitative easing policy

MEPs have another busy week ahead of them.

The European Central Bank (ECB) started at the beginning of the month with its controversial quantative easing programme, buying government bonds with the goal of lowering interest rates, increasing inflation and kick-starting economic growth. ECB president Mario Draghi meets the EP's economic affairs committee to discuss the initiative.

At the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) plenary session on 19 March, the vice-president of the European Commission Jyrki Katainen, whose remit covers jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, announced that EUR 75 million would be made available to SMEs in late April 2015 under the new European Fund for Strategic Investment.

The World Bank approved US$187 million for a Sindh Irrigated Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Project (SIAPEP) to help improve irrigation water management at tertiary and field levels in Sindh on March 20. The project will support efficient management of scarce water resources and is designed to augment adaptation under different climate change scenarios.

The European Commission presented a package of tax transparency measures as part of its ambitious agenda to tackle corporate tax avoidance and harmful tax competition in the EU on 18 March. A key element of this Tax Transparency Package is a proposal to introduce the automatic exchange of information between Member States on their tax rulings.

On March 18, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved financial assistance under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) in the amount equivalent to SDR 5.57 million (about US$7.63 million) for the Central African Republic (C.A.R.) in support of the Transitional Authorities’ emergency economic recovery program.

UK Business Secretary Vince Cable announced plans to launch an online tool that will make it easier to find out how much people are paid in different occupations, sectors and regions across the UK on March 20. The aim is that the increased transparency will see the wages of people on low pay increase.

Early Estimates of Quarterly Unit Labour Costs

Seasonally adjusted data, Total economy