Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The current heating tariff system in Belarus is inefficient, unsustainable in the long run, and undermines industry competiveness and risks macroeconomic instability, says a World Bank’s study Belarus: Heat Tariff Reform and Social Impact Mitigation.

Bernd Lange

The Kyrgyz Republic has been re-classified from a low income country to a lower-middle income country, according to the 2014 Income Classifications released in July 2014 by the Bank’s Office of Development Economics and Chief Economist. The World Bank updated the analytical country classification, which groups economies of the world into four categories based on 2013 gross national income (GNI) per capita estimates: low income, lower-middle income, upper-middle income, and high income.

The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a loan of US$500 million for a project aimed to expand natural gas access to 1.5 million Egyptian households in eleven governorates, including three governorates (Sohag, Qena and Aswan) located in Upper Egypt, where poverty levels are the highest.

The EU imports more than half of the energy it consumes and that can make it vulnerable to external energy suppliers such as Russia. To improve the situation, the European Commission presented a plan to reduce this dependence, which was discussed by Parliament’s industry committee this week. To find out the key facts and figures about the EU’s energy imports and how it varies from country to country.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved US$50 million for the Government of Kenya to strengthen its capacity to manage the oil and gas sector and the distribution of its revenues to create sustainable growth across all areas of the country’s economy.

The World Bank Group will bring increased financial and knowledge resources to help India return to the path of sustained high growth needed to bring prosperity to millions, especially the poor living in the lower income states. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim made this renewed commitment during his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The introduction of pension mobility within the emerging Eurasian Economic Union is an essential step towards regional economic integration, according to the “Pension Mobility within the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS” report, launched in Russia.