Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

MEPs voted to make the recognition of official documents easier in another EU member state during the 3-6 February plenary session, backed rules to punish manipulators of financial markets and urged an EU-wide strategy to combat homophobia and protect the rights of LGBTI people.

The coming week will see a return to fiscal drama in the U.S. Capitol with lawmakers scrambling to raise the federal borrowing limit before they adjourn for a week-long recess.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission, led by Mr. Jeffrey Franks, met with the Pakistan authorities in Dubai from February 1-9, 2014 for discussions on the second review of Pakistan’s IMF-supported program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) approved by the Executive Board of the IMF on September 4, 2013.

As part of the intensified battle against tax fraud, the Commission launched the process to start negotiations with Russia and Norway on administrative cooperation agreements in the area of Value Added Tax (VAT). The broad goal of these agreements would be to establish a framework of mutual assistance in combatting cross-border VAT fraud and in helping each country recover the VAT it is due. VAT fraud involving third-country operators is particularly a risk in the telecoms and e-services sectors. Given the growth of these sectors, more effective tools to fight such fraud are essential to protect public budgets. Cooperation agreements with the EU's neighbours and trading partners would improve Member States' chances of identifying and clamping down on VAT fraud, and would stem the financial losses this causes. The Commission is therefore asking Member States for a mandate to start such negotiations with Russia and Norway, while continuing exploratory talks with a number of other important international partners.

Ongoing regional tensions, together with a challenging external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven transition countries in the region. Long overdue reforms, that could help spur growth and create jobs, have continued to be delayed to avoid further social and political discontent. The World Bank Group’s latest Quarterly Economic Brief argues that these countries should seize the opportunity to advance structural reforms needed to break the vicious circle of slow growth and political instability.

Workers in a food processing plant.

International donors are not doing enough to help fragile states increase their domestic revenue, according to a new OECD report that shows only a tiny fraction of development aid goes into programmes to improve tax collection.

The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a US$5.5 million credit to the Government of Lesotho (GoL) to support their efforts for improving the country’s public financial management system.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries lag behind when compared with other regions in the development of broadband networks, internet access and use, and creation of digital content.

Parliament’s negotiators on the proposed single resolution mechanism for ailing banks won its support on Thursday for the line they have taken in talks with EU member states on the last block of legislation needed to establish an EU banking union. Their original negotiating mandate was confirmed by 441 votes to 141, with 17 abstentions.