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.
Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs continue to rise to near 2008 levels, according to new World Bank Group numbers released ahead of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Paris.
The dynamics of the past few months regarding the price of oil, prime materials and food stuffs, worryingly reminds us of what happened to the world economy mid-2008. At the time the sky high price of oil – which reached U$147 a barrel - and the food crisis caused havoc.
The World Bank’s 2011 Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report predicts that Chile will be the fastest-growing economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, while the latter’s growth slows down.
Finance Minister Ismael Benavides said Peru's economy should grow between 8% and 8.5% this year, with inflation ending the year from 2.2% to 2.5%. The Peruvian Central Bank latest forecast was annual growth of 7.5% to 8%.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called on bickering G-20 nations to bring gold back into the global monetary system as an anchor to guide currency movements.