Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Addressing the 40th annual FSB conference in Manchester, Minister Hancock will set out the steps the government is taking to link small and medium sized businesses with the development of policy.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss Pakistan’s ongoing economic reform program, including a stronger focus on private sector involvement and other poverty fighting measures.

St. Kitts and Nevis is recovering from a four-year economic recession, occasioned by the international financial crisis, the need to restore fiscal sustainability and restructure public debt. For 2013, real GDP is estimated to have grown by 1.7 percent, based on a modest recovery in tourism, and a strong pickup in construction related to the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program and other tourism-related projects.

A new World Bank–supported business hub, the Ethiopia Climate Innovation Center (ECIC), was launched in Addis Ababa to support pioneering clean technology enterprises that address climate change while creating jobs and improving livelihoods. First of its kind in the country, the center will help over 3.1 million Ethiopians increase resilience to climate change and is expected to create more than 12,000 jobs in the next ten years.

Tunisia’s former regime used existing regulations and created new ones to benefit family members and those close to the regime. Regulations were manipulated to such an extent that by the end of 2010 this group of privileged insiders was capturing over 21 percent of all private sector profits in the country, according to a new study from researchers at the World Bank Group.

The World Bank Group’s Board of Directors approved US$ 526.5 million in grant and credit financing for the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) for four countries: Afghanistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission, led by Mr. Alfredo Cuevas, met with the Zimbabwean authorities in Harare during March 12-26, 2014, to hold discussions on the 2014 Article IV Consultation and the combined first and second reviews under the Staff-Monitored Program (SMP). The program was approved by IMF Management in June 2013 and extended in December 2013.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission worked in Kyiv during March 4-25, to assess the current economic situation and discuss the authorities’ economic reform program that could be supported by the IMF.

Europe’s economy could be boosted by €800 billion – equivalent to 6% of current GDP – if more action is undertaken at EU level, according to a study by the European Parliament. Creating a digital single market alone would generate an additional €260 billion, more than Denmark’s estimated GDP for 2014.