Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

A banking union is being set up by the EU to help keep Europe's financial system stable and prevent another crisis from taking place. It requires finding a fast and efficient way to deal with failing banks while ensuring that taxpayers are spared from paying for bankers' mistakes.

A new project will enhance the efficiency of financial management systems and promote effective use of public resources in Lebanon. The US$ 5.2 million loan approved will strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Finance in fiscal policy analysis and debt management.

The European Investment Bank Group (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank Group, including its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), have continued to deliver strong financial support for central and south-eastern Europe in a joint programme to stimulate economic growth.

Italy has raised its foreign aid contributions and its future targets, reversing a trend of falling development assistance, and now needs to improve the way it manages its development programmes, according to a new OECD review.

Personal income tax has risen in 25 out of 34 OECD countries over the past three years, as countries reduce the value of tax-free allowances and tax credits and subject higher proportions of earnings to tax, according to new data in the annual Taxing Wages publication.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is cautiously optimistic that Guinea Bissau’s elections scheduled for Sunday will be transparent, free and fair, says Sonny Ugoh, Communications Director for ECOWAS.

While economic growth remains vital for reducing poverty, growth has its limits, according to a new World Bank paper released. Countries need to complement efforts to enhance growth with policies that allocate more resources to the extreme poor. These resources can be distributed through the growth process itself, by promoting more inclusive growth, or through government programs, such as conditional and direct cash transfers.

Growth in the Emerging Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is decelerating this year due to downward adjustments in the eastern part of the region, the World Bank said at a press briefing during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings. With growth going from 2.1 percent in 2013 down to an anticipated 1.9 percent in 2014, economic growth in ECA is expected to be the slowest among all developing regions in 2014.

As international investors shift their focus back to advanced economies, particularly the United States, as a result of monetary policy normalization, emerging economies face much tighter financial conditions. Still, the impact of this reversal in capital flows is less significant for Latin America and the Caribbean thanks to its new reliance on more stable international flows.

A bomb blew up outside the Greek central bank in Athens Thursday morning, hours before Greece returns to the international bond market.