Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is facing an economic and humanitarian crisis as a result of the influx of Syrian refugees (starting in early 2012) and more recently the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in 2014. According to a newly completed KRG – World Bank report, economic growth contracted 5 percentage points in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), and poverty rate more than double increasing from 3.5 percent to 8.1 percent.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Kyiv during January 8 - February 12, to discuss the authorities’ economic reform program, which could be supported by an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Arrangement. The EFF would replace the existing Stand-By Arrangement. The new arrangement would provide a medium-term framework for policy adjustment and reforms, which, combined with strong support from the broader international community, aim to restore macroeconomic stability and promote robust growth over the medium term.

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved Thursday a US$130 million project to support the Moroccan national goal of ensuring all municipal solid waste is disposed in sanitary landfills, along with 20% of all waste recycled, by 2022. The project will focus on boosting solid waste services in urban areas, while improving conditions and incomes for traditional jobs associated with solid waste management, namely the ‘waste pickers,’ and developing new businesses and jobs based on recycling.

The IMF team working in Kiev has reached a staff-level agreement with the Ukrainian government on a new economic reform program that would be supported by an Extended Fund Facility of SDR 12.35 billion (about $17.5 billion, €15.5 billion) from the IMF, as well as by additional resources from the international community.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the fifth review of Guinea’s economic performance under the program supported by an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement on February 11. The Board’s decision enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 45.135 million (about US$63.6 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 136.935 million (about US$192.9 million).

At the end of their Second Tripartite Meeting in Accra, Ghana, representatives of ECOWAS, UEMOA and the World Bank Group, have agreed on a set of priorities aimed at significantly diversifying and transforming the economies of the sub-region. The delegates highlighted, among other things, boosting agricultural productivity and marketing; making the infrastructure sectors – transport (both road and air) and energy more efficient; scaling up efforts to eradicate Ebola and other infectious diseases and preventing violent conflicts, while implementing the sub-region’s Common External Tariff (CET) which became effective on 1 January 2015.

Sweden has completed the requirements for adherence to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus—the highest tier of the Data Standards Initiatives. Sweden’s SDDS Plus data are now posted on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB: SDDS Plus Adherents).

Meat used as an ingredient in processed foods, such as lasagne, should be labelled by country of origin as is already the case with bovine fresh meat, said MEPs on Wednesday. They call on the European Commission, which published a report on the issue in late 2013, to come up with legislative proposals in order to rebuild consumer confidence in the wake of the horsemeat scandal and other food fraud cases.

Head of the Africa bureau at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Abdoulaye Mar Dieye (3rd right) observes young people participating in the construction of their cultural and sports centre funded by UNDP in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR).

Mongolia’s recent economic growth has dramatically changed Ulaanbaatar. Since 2000, Ulaanbaatar’s population has nearly doubled and the built up area of the city has expanded by 40 percent. Yet, the city’s expansion has also made it among the least dense cities of its size (based on built-up land) in the region. This low-density spatial expansion has negatively affected traffic and congestion levels and air quality, increased exposure to hazards such as fire and flooding, and reduces equitable access to public services such as schools and clinics. All of these factors limit the quality of urban life and the economic potential of the city.