Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

A new, Western Balkans Trade and Transport Facilitation Project will reduce both time and cost of trade across the Western Balkans. The $90 million project, phase one of a $140 million, multi-phase approach, was approved by the World Bank Board of Directors on April 18.

Supporting faster, inclusive, and sustainable growth in the Republic of North Macedonia is the objective of the new four-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF) endorsed by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors, on April 18th. The strategy aims to support the Government’s program and medium-term strategy by creating greater opportunities to improve citizen’s living standards and accelerate income convergence with the European Union (EU).

On March 27, 2019, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has made great strides converging towards OECD living standards, and its accession process to the OECD was opened in 2015. Moreover, over the last four decades the export sector has transformed itself from being agricultural-based to high-value-added manufacturing and service-oriented, helped by trade openness and strong FDI inflows. Nevertheless, unemployment and income inequality remain elevated, and the persistently high fiscal deficit and rapidly rising public debt continue to pose vulnerabilities.

On April 13, at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund, Finance Ministers from more than twenty countries launched a new coalition aimed at driving stronger collective action on climate change and its impacts. The newly formed Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action endorsed a set of six common principles, known as the “Helsinki Principles,” that promote national climate action, especially through fiscal policy and the use of public finance.

The World Bank Group and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed a declaration of intent to foster cooperation on sustainable and inclusive development in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA), on April 13.

Since it began in 2010, UYEP has provided more than 18,500 unemployed urban young people (aged between 16 and 35 years) with income, training and temporary employment opportunities aimed at increasing their employability, 41 percent of them young women. The project is jointly funded by the World Bank, the Australian Government (DFAT) and the Government of Papua New Guinea through the National Capital District Commission with support from the Republic of Korea, Exxon Mobil and Bank of South Pacific.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Stéphane Roudet visited Muscat from March 26 to April 8 to hold the 2019 Article IV consultation discussions with Oman.