France, Germany and Italy on Tuesday announced plans to join the Chinese-led development bank AIIB, drawing concern in Washington which views the institution with skepticism. The three European countries want ”to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)”, they said in a statement.
The US has expressed concern over the UK's bid to become a founding member of a Chinese-backed development bank. The UK is the first big Western economy to apply for membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) despite the fact that US has raised questions over the bank's commitment to international standards on governance.
The World Bank on Tuesday cut its global growth forecast for 2015 and lowered the estimate for 2014, as several headwinds mitigate the effects of an improving U. S. economy and plunging oil prices.
The United Kingdom contributions mostly through World Bank loans and aid to Argentina have again been questioned in Britain with demands on Prime Minister David Cameron to block British taxpayers cash going to the country which has 'precarious finances' and a long standing demand over the Falkland Islands sovereignty.
Chile’s Finance Ministry Alberto Arenas, and the World Bank Group (WBG), represented by its Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Familiar, signed a cooperation agreement to establish in Chile the first Research and Development Center in Latin America, and the second outside Washington, DC.
The World Bank's Doing Business global rating is not very enthusiastic about Latin American and the Caribbean which only first surfaces in position 34 out of the 189 countries considered.
The World Bank chief financial officer is giving up part of his bonus after an uproar over cost-cutting measures at the lender. Bertrand Badre will decline the remainder of his 94,000 dollar annual bonus, the bank said.
The Argentine economy needs an urgent change of course which would have the effect of reestablishing normal relations with the financial market, a crucial step to open a maneuvering space in an ever more complex environment, suggested Augusto de la Torre, World Bank chief economist for Latin America.
During the recent commodity boom, Latin America and the Caribbean proved that growth could be pro-poor and help fuel tremendous social progress. Now as growth slows regionally and beyond, it is critical to consider what will shore up economic activity while ensuring the poor won't stay behind.
World Bank Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Augusto De la Torre has said the ongoing conflict between Argentina and holdout creditors is due to the “lack of international debt regulation frames”, and favored Argentina's initiative in the UN to “solve the situation.”