View Articles

New York: The United Nations moved today towards imposing sanctions on anybody obstructing the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire, where outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo refuses to step down despite international recognition of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the divided country’s new head.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the first review under the three-year Policy Support Instrument (PSI) for the Republic of Mozambique. The Board's decision was taken on a lapse of time basis.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. David O. Robinson visited Manama during December 1-13 to conduct the 2010 Article IV Consultations.

New York: A joint United Nations-African Union team travelled today to the South Darfur village that was attacked twice in recent days by Sudanese forces resulting in the death of two civilians and the wounding of 24 others.

WTO intellectual property talks, which are about setting up a multilateral geographical indications register for wines and spirits, became the latest on 10 December 2010 to aim for an endgame spurt in early 2011 and a conclusion to the whole Doha Round by the end of the year.

New York: The economies of Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to grow by six per cent in 2010 as a result of the recovery posted by many countries in the region, according to an annual United Nations report released today.

Qatar has weathered the global financial crisis exceptionally well, reflecting the quick and strong policy response by the authorities. Growth has rebounded, and is projected to accelerate to 20 percent in 2011, while inflation will remain subdued. Continuing public investment in infrastructure will keep growth high in the medium term and support nonhydrocarbon growth. Improving productivity will be key to greater self-sustaining long-term growth in the nonhydrocarbon sectors. While the current expansive fiscal policy remains appropriate and monetary policy should remain geared towards supporting credit growth, aggregate demand should be carefully monitored in order to avoid the emergence of inflationary pressures. The central bank will have to rely increasingly on macroprudential instruments to manage the credit cycle and to counter potential surges in capital inflows. Establishing a debt management office and setting up a macro-fiscal unit will constitute important institutional reforms to support policy making. Further improvements in statistics will be essential, which will also require greater coordination between various agencies.

New York: A United Nations initiative launched three years ago to resettle tens of thousands of refugees from camps in eastern Nepal passed the 40,000 mark today, the world body’s refugee agency reported.

The Belgian economy is recovering from the financial crisis and global recession. Although the economy has good fundamentals, the financial market turbulence in the euro area poses risks to the recovery. An encompassing strategy to better control public spending pressures, including from population aging, and to increase employment is urgently needed. Therefore, it is important for the authorities to focus on macroeconomic policy priorities, in particular measures to proceed with fiscal consolidation, contain risks in the financial sector, and push ahead with structural reforms to boost job creation and growth.

Estonia has been successful in its all-out efforts to join the euro area on January 1, 2011. This represents the culmination of 18 years of a fundamentally sound currency board arrangement, supported by a strong commitment to fiscal rectitude that consistently delivered surpluses prior to the crisis. Moreover, despite enduring one of the sharpest contractions in the EU in 2009, the authorities commendably persevered with policies based on satisfying the Maastricht criteria. With the fiscal deficit remaining comfortably below the Maastricht ceiling in 2010, Estonia has earned the distinction of being one of only two EU countries not currently under an Excessive Deficit Procedure.