BEIRUT (AP) — The World Bank approved a $150 million soft loan for food security in crisis-hit Lebanon to stabilize bread prices during the coming months, the economy minister said Monday.
Amin Salam told reporters that the loan has a very low interest rate but the minister did not make the rate public.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will receive $300 million to $600 million from the World Bank over the next four months to buy medicine and other essential items, the country’s finance minister said Friday, as the Indian ocean island suffers its worst economic crisis in decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The mounting economic damage to Ukraine from Russia's ongoing bombardment has the U.S. and its allies speeding billions in aid to the beleaguered country — and looking for other sources of cash as well, including Russia itself.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday as Russia's representative started talking.
Several finance ministers and central bank governors also left the room, according an official familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event was not public.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The heads of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank warned Wednesday that rising interest rates are squeezing the world's poorest countries as they struggle with the coronavirus and soaring food prices.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon is close to reaching an agreement with the World Bank in which the international agency would give the crisis-hit country a $150 million loan for food security and to stabilize bread prices for the next six months, the economy minister said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington — but she'll be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually.
WASHINGTON — Ukraine is sending top officials to Washington for next week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where discussion will focus on the Russian invasion and its impact on the global economy.
LONDON (AP) — The World Bank says Ukraine's economy will shrink by 45.1% this year because of Russia's invasion, which has shut down half of the country's businesses, choked off imports and exports, and damaged a vast amount of critical infrastructure.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — As Costa Rica's future president cast his ballot at a school in the capital, a young woman stood on the sidewalk outside shouting, “Harasser!”
She was surrounded and drowned out by Rodrigo Chaves’ supporters, but stood her ground, a purple handkerchief that read, “For our right to decide” tied around her neck.
BANGKOK (AP) — Disruptions to supplies of commodities, financial strains and higher prices are among the impacts of the war in Ukraine that will slow economies in Asia in coming months, the World Bank says in a report released Tuesday.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — President-elect Rodrigo Chaves said Monday that his runoff victory was a “revolution” by marginalized communities against Costa Rica's elites.
The conservative economist, who was briefly finance minister in the outgoing administration of President Carlos Alvarado, had cast himself as the outsider in the race, noting that his Social Democratic Progress Party had never won at any level before this year.
CAIRO (AP) — The World Bank has approved an additional $300 million for desperately needed aid for the poorest and most vulnerably households in war-torn Yemen, as well as for helping the country fight the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement released Thursday.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon signed deals on Wednesday to purchase electricity from Jordan via Syria to help the small Mediterranean country deal with its crippling energy crisis.
The deals are expected to bring Lebanon up to 250 megawatts of electricity a day within two months, enough for about two hours of power a day.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s economy contracted by more than 58%, the World Bank said Tuesday, warning in a report that the small country’s financial meltdown poses a threat to long-term stability and social peace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank is downgrading its outlook for the global economy, blaming continuing outbreaks of COVID-19, a reduction in government economic support and ongoing bottlenecks in global supply chains.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The embattled head of the International Monetary Fund, who successfully fought to keep her job following a data-manipulation scandal, on Wednesday pledged renewed efforts to bolster data integrity while focusing on the main job of helping countries recover from a devastating global pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund expressed “full confidence” in its managing director Tuesday in response to allegations that while she was a World Bank official, she and others pressured staffers to change business rankings in an effort to placate China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The executive board of the International Monetary Fund said late Friday that it is seeking more “clarifying details” in its investigation into allegations that the head of the IMF pressured staff at the World Bank to change business rankings for China in an effort to placate that country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that a report alleging she had a role in data-rigging at the World Bank when she was a top official there was not an accurate representation of events.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund met on Wednesday with her agency's executive board, which is conducting an investigation into alleged data-rigging at the World Bank, the sister global lender where she was formerly was a top executive.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund says the agency is trimming its forecast for global growth this year.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Tuesday cited rising risks from inflation, debt and a divergence in growth prospects between nations with access to coronavirus vaccines and those in need of shots.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund said Monday its board of directors has been briefed by attorneys from the law firm whose investigation found that current IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other officials pressured World Bank employees to alter data affecting the business rankings of China and other nations.
CAIRO (AP) — The head of the World Bank held talks Thursday with Sudan's transitional leaders, focusing on the country's daunting economic challenges and a reform program the African nation is undertaking to overhaul the battered economy.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Female Afghan health workers, teachers and rights defenders Tuesday urged the international community to resume financial aid to Afghanistan, saying non-payment has disproportionally impacted women.
BEIJING (AP) — The World Bank on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for developing countries in East Asia due to the impact of the coronavirus’s delta variant and called on governments to help the poor and small businesses avoid long-term damage.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice" in the building that once housed the Women's Affairs Ministry, escorting out World Bank staffers on Saturday as part of the forced move.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fire for allegations that it bowed to pressure from China and other governments, the World Bank has dropped a popular report that ranked countries by how welcoming they are to businesses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former officials of the World Bank are under pressure after an investigation found that they pressured staff members of the bank to alter data on global business conditions in order to favor China and some other governments.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A month after the fall of Kabul, the world is still wrestling with how to help Afghanistan’s impoverished people without propping up their Taliban leaders — a question that grows more urgent by the day.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hot spots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found.
AMMAN (AP) — Egyptian natural gas should reach Lebanon through Jordan and Syria soon after maintenance of pipelines and the review of a deal interrupted 10-years ago are finalized by early October, ministers of the four countries said Wednesday.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s government agreed Monday to pay tens of thousands of poor families cash assistance in U.S. dollars from a World Bank loan as the country’s economic crisis deepens.
The decision comes as Lebanon is expected to end subsidies for fuel by the end of next month, a move that is expected to lead to sharp increases in prices of almost all products.
CAIRO (AP) — The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund announced that Sudan has met the initial criteria for over $50 billion in foreign debt relief, another step for the East African nation to rejoin the international community after nearly three decades of isolation.
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets declined for a second day Tuesday after Wall Street hit a new high on tech stock gains and the World Bank raised its forecast of Chinese economic growth.
Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong retreated.
BEIJING (AP) — The World Bank raised its forecast of China’s economic growth this year to 8.5% from 8.1% and said Tuesday that a full recovery requires progress in vaccinations against the coronavirus.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese troops deployed in the northern city of Tripoli early Sunday taking positions around major state institutions after a night of protests and riots against worsening living conditions left several protesters and 10 soldiers injured.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s economy ministry on Tuesday raised the price of subsidized bread for the fifth time in a year as the country’s multiple crises worsen with no resolution in sight.
The ministry said the reason behind the latest increase — an 18% hike from the last raise in February — was the central bank's ending of sugar subsidies, which in turn adds to the cost of bread production.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank is upgrading the outlook for global growth this year, predicting that COVID-19 vaccinations and massive government stimulus in rich countries will power the fastest worldwide expansion in nearly five decades.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s severe economic and financial crisis is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in more than 150 years, the World Bank said in a report released Tuesday.
The World Bank said that since late 2019, Lebanon has been facing compounded challenges, including its largest peace-time economic and financial crisis, the spread of coronavirus and a massive blast at Beirut’s port last year that is considered as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Global finance officials are pledging closer cooperation in efforts to lift the world economy out of its current slowdown, but tensions persist between the United States and other nations over trade and other issues...