Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The Eurasian Economic Union is headed for a rough start.
Officials from members of the economic alliance, which was modeled on the European Union and officially comes into effect January 1, met Tuesday in Moscow under the pain of Russia's collapsing economy and the absence of Ukraine.

The World Bank Tuesday disbursed the full amount of the US$75 million Second Development Policy Operation (DPO) for Armenia to support a wide range of critical reforms under implementation by the Government of Armenia.

On 23 December the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved an International Development Association (IDA)* financing in the amount of US$50 million to support climate change related reforms agreed upon between the Government of Mozambique (GoM) and the World Bank under the Climate Change Development Policy Operation (DPO). This operation will improve the country’s resilience to effects of climate change through the implementation of reforms across several sectors of the economy.

On December 22, 2014, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to replace the three-month Eurepo rate as the euro component of the SDR interest basket with the three-month spot rate for euro area central government bonds with a rating of AA and above published by the European Central Bank. This decision was taken in view of the upcoming discontinuation of the Eurepo rate as of December 31, 2014.

A weak Q3 GDP print means end-year growth is likely to come in just above 3 percent. However the disappointing headline number is mainly due to a reduction in inventories with other components of domestic demand signaling improvements, according to the World Bank’s Turkey Regular Economic Brief No: 5- issued Tuesday in Ankara.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors Monday approved a US$378.425 million loan for the Second Power Transmission Project to improve the reliability of the power transmission system and support the implementation of the Wholesale Electricity Market in Ukraine. With this new project, the Bank is stepping up its support for the country’s energy sector reforms.

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors Monday approved a US$88 million loan to help Kazakhstan foster innovation by promoting high-quality nationally relevant research and commercialization of technologies.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Mr. Edward Gemayel visited Khartoum from December 8-17 to conduct the third review for Sudan’s Staff-Monitored Program (SMP).

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Kristina Kostial visited Amman during December 10-16 to take stock of recent economic developments and discuss with the authorities their planned economic policies for 2015 and beyond.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 19 December completed the sixth review of Jamaica’s economic performance under the program supported by a four-year, SDR 615.38 million (about US$932 million at the time of approval) arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).