Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

One out of every five Latin Americans or around 130 million people have never known anything but poverty, subsisting on less than US$4-a-day throughout their lives. These are the region´s chronically poor, who have remained so despite unprecedented inroads against poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean since the turn of the century.

OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates, s.a.

(1) The United Kingdom figure refers to November 2014 data compared to October 2014 and November 2013 data.‌‌‌

Tunisia has made great strides since 2011 towards greater inclusivity and fairness in its political system, based on the rule of law, transparency and good governance. The country now needs to adopt a new growth model to achieve its full potential and cement the democratic transition, according to two new OECD reports.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. Rodrigo Cubero visited Dhaka from February 25 to March 10 to conduct discussions on the fifth and sixth reviews under a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The ECF was approved on April 11, 2012 for a total amount of SDR 639.96 million (about US$ 887.64 million based on the SDR exchange rate on March 9, 2015).

Many MEPs called for solidarity among EU member states and concrete steps by the European Commission to aid road hauliers hit by Russian restrictions on food and farm produce imports from the EU, in a debate on Monday evening. The import ban’s impact on hauliers has been neglected, even though the EU has taken measures to support producers of fruit, vegetables and dairy produce, said Transport Committee MEPs in a question tabled for debate with the Commission.

Parliament adopted the rules to address present banks' reluctance to lend to small businesses or open-ended research projects by creating European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs) designed to benefit the real economy and society by channelling non-bank funds into long-term projects to deliver infrastructure, intellectual property or research results, on Tuesday.

Stable growth momentum in the OECD area

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on February 5, 2015 launched a multi-donor trust fund to deliver capacity development in Somalia. The Somalia Trust Fund aims at improving macroeconomic institutions, policies, and data systems and will provide over nine (9) million dollars worth of technical assistance and training to Somalia over the next three years.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by the new Mission Chief, Cemile Sancak, visited Lomé during February 27-March 5, 2015. The team discussed economic policy priorities with senior government officials, including the President of the Republic, and the donor community, and assessed macroeconomic developments.