Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Budgets Committee MEPs voted on Wednesday in favour of cutting the Parliament's administrative budget by almost €10 million compared to the Commission's June draft budget. The outcome is a real-terms reduction in the EP budget.

The standoff that has shut down non-essential U.S. government operations is showing no signs of a resolution. As the shutdown entered its second day on Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats in Congress were still blaming each other, and many Americans were blaming them all.

European Semester economic policy coordination needs many fixes, not least to take proper account of growth, employment, investment and social concerns, warned the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in a resolution voted on Monday. MEPs also called for more rules to ensure economic convergence and again underlined that democratic accountability and ownership must be improved.

The government of Bangladesh signed a financing agreement worth $400 million for the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP I) with the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional arm.

Separate electricity infrastructure for rural agriculture and non-agriculture power consumers, also known as rural feeder segregation, is improving both the availability and quality of power supply in rural areas. However, a standard approach to feeder segregation for all states may not work, says a new World Bank Report.

On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a long-anticipated and controversial plan to raise consumption tax from 5 percent to 8 percent by April of next year in a bid to help reduce Japan's massive public debt.

The U.S. government has enacted a partial shutdown after the two chambers of Congress failed to agree on a single spending bill by the October 1st deadline.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a US$3 million grant in additional financing for the Solomon Islands Rural Development Program (RDP), which will continue to support community-led projects for priority infrastructure and agriculture services in rural areas, including in the remote Outer Islands.

Legislation for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was endorsed by the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee on Monday, following last week's informal agreement in talks between Parliament, the Council and the Commission.