Developing nations warned the IMF on Thursday against imposing new rules dictating how they manage capital inflows rushing into their economies, suggesting rich nations take a hard look at their own policies instead.
Latin America and the Caribbean have weathered the 2008-2009 recession much better than it had previous downturns. However less well-known is that the region, particularly Mercosur members, also decisively outperformed many other regions during the same period with a decline in growth smaller than that of the middle-income country average and with a rebound that was swifter and stronger.
Strong public and private consumption, abundant credit and strong currency appreciation among other reasons helped Latin American countries overcome the 2008/09 recession and outperform other regions according to the World Bank report Latin America and the Caribbean’s Success Put to the Test.
Driven in part by higher fuel costs connected to events in the Middle East and North Africa, global food prices are 36% above their levels a year ago and remain volatile, pushing people deeper into poverty, according to new World Bank Group numbers released Thursday.
Growing crime and violence in Central America not only have an immediate human and social toll but they also pose a tremendous threat to development potential in the region since it is estimated that these sources of instability cost 8% of GDP, once health, institutional, private security, and material expenses are accounted for.
Latin America can help solve the global food crisis by expanding farm production, the World Bank said this weekend, and Colombia said it was on board with plans for an 'agricultural revolution'.
Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami will depress growth briefly before reconstruction kicks off and gives the beleaguered economy a boost, the World Bank said in a report.
Some two million people who live in informal low income settlements (favelas) in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region, Brazil, will be benefiting from a 485 million US dollars development policy loan for the Metropolitan and Housing Project approved by the World Bank.
Half a million additional kids in Argentina will see their prospects in life improve following the expansion of a popular social protection program with World Bank support.
Negotiators have failed to agree targets to reduce global economic imbalances on the first day of the two-day G20 meeting in Paris. The countries want to better coordinate economic policies to avoid a repeat of the 2008 global financial crisis.