Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

A staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Nadeem Ilahi visited Tirana during December 3–17 to hold Article IV consultation discussions and to discuss the authorities’ request for an economic program.

Distributors of fake euro or other currencies could face tougher penalties under a draft EU law voted in the Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. It would require EU countries to set a maximum penalty of no less than eight years in jail for distributors – the same as for forgers - and also allow police to use serious-crime tools, such as intercepting communications, to catch the culprits. Fake euro have cost citizens and firms over €500 million since they came into general use in 2002.

Large companies would be obliged to disclose information on their environmental, social and employee-related impact under a draft law on non-financial reporting approved by Legal Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

The EU member states’ current plans for a common system for winding down troubled banks risk being too complex to work, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Monday. Parliament’s view of these plans, for which the committee is to approve a negotiating mandate on Tuesday, is likely to be much closer to Mr Draghi's vision than that of member states.

Reversing the slower growth forecast for 2014 will require additional and more focused policy responses, says the World Bank’s latest Indonesia Economic Quarterly report, released.

The Dec. 3 ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, which gave Detroit's dictatorial Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr the "right" to put the city through Chapter 9 bankruptcy, and to eviscerate public sector retirees' pensions, demonstrates the imminent threat of the Wall Street/City of London "bail-in" policy against the U.S. population. Under that policy, anybody and everybody holding legal liabilities of a bankrupt bank (or, as in this case, the City of Detroit) can be illegally wiped out, but the process produces chaotic liquidation anyway because the protected payments to the exceptions—the financial institutions that hold "qualified financial contracts" (financial derivatives, repo agreements, etc.)—take top priority.

National Bank of Serbia, the European Union (EU) Delegation to Serbia and the European Central Bank (ECB) celebrated the completion of an extensive cooperation agreement with the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) to help the Serbian central bank prepare to join the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The programme was financed by the European Union with a donation of €2,500,000.

From ‘Tasty Pastry’ to ‘Gadget Cabin’ – enterprising jobseekers have set up 32,520 new businesses thanks to a government scheme that helps unemployed people turn their dreams of becoming their own boss into a reality.

The World Bank approved a $175 million loan for the Second Gujarat State Highway Project to support the government of Gujarat improve the quality of the state’s core road network, enhance road safety and strengthen the road sector management capacity of the state.

Building upon a long-standing and fruitful cooperation between the two institutions, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 100 million loan to Banco Popular Portugal to finance small and medium-sized projects undertaken by SMEs and midcaps. Banco Popular Portugal will match this amount with at least a further EUR 100 million. The loan agreement was signed.