Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 1, 2014 approved a disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 4.15 million (about US$6.4 million) for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to be drawn equally from the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) at SDR 2.075 million or about US$3.2 million each. This disbursement will help the country meet an urgent balance-of-payments need due to severe flooding and landslides in December 2013 that caused massive damage to infrastructure, housing and agriculture.

The European Central Bank (ECB) marks a major milestone in the integration of retail payments in Europe. After 15 years of work, the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) has been successfully implemented for credit transfers and direct debits in the euro area. Every month more than 2 billion payments will now flow across the euro area in new standardised formats.

Following the expiration on June 30, 2014 of its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, Portugal will engage in post-program monitoring (PPM) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

U.S. President Barack Obama says his administration is taking action on its own because "Congress is doing so little for working families."

The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a US$50 million grant to support the government of Yemen’s efforts to improve access to basic services for the country’s underserved communities.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Mr. Chikahisa Sumi visited Fiji from July 17-30 to conduct Article IV consultation discussions with the Fijian authorities.

On July 25, 2014, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the People’s Republic of China.

The Minister of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan Abdusalom Kurbonov and the World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan Marsha Olive signed a grant agreement to finance the Tajikistan Agriculture Commercialization Project. The new project is jointly supported by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and is funded by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) in the amount of US$22 million.