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The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the third review of Serbia's economic performance under a program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). The completion of the review enables the immediate release of SDR 319.6 million (about €360 million, or US$485.23 million). The Serbian authorities have indicated that they will draw only 50 percent of the purchase available under this review. This would bring total disbursements under the program to SDR 1.2 billion (about €1.3billion, or US$1.8 billion). The Board also completed the financing assurances review.

New York: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named a veteran United Nations official as his Acting Special Representative for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which was set up over two years ago amid increasing unrest, partly due to the war in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted additional interim assistance under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in an amount equivalent to SDR 5.0 million (about $7.6 million) for the period April 2010 through March 2011 on a lapse of time basis.

Economic activity in 2009 slowed due to a series of global and domestic shocks. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is estimated at 1.7 percent compared to 2.0 percent in 2008. Average inflation fell to 3.5 percent in 2009 after reaching 9.3 percent in 2008. The external current account deficit declined to 8 percent of GDP because of reduced import volumes and improved terms of trade (due to a decrease in world oil prices and an increase in diamond prices).

The Government of Mozambique, in close coordination with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, organized a high-level conference on the future economic challenges and opportunities for Mozambique. The conference took place in Namaacha in Southern Mozambique from March 22-24, 2010, with over 100 participants from the government, the central bank, civil society, the private sector, academia, and development partners. The conclusions of the conference were discussed in a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Maputo on March 25, 2010, chaired by His Excellency the Prime Minister. World Bank and IMF staff were invited to join the policymakers' discussions.

The Mozambican economy continues to perform strongly. Economic growth exceeded 6 percent in 2009 and is projected to approach 8 percent over the medium term, driven by strong private and public investment. A recovery in external demand and capital inflows, as well as recent donor assurances on their budget support commitments, should strengthen Mozambique's balance of payments and further buttress its international reserves. Inflation is projected to around 6 percent over the medium term, although it could temporarily increase in 2010 because of an increased pass-through of international fuel prices to domestic retail prices.

New York: The United Nations announced today that 75 nations have submitted their pledges to cut or limit emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020, following last year's climate change conference in Copenhagen.

New York: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has granted the prosecutor's request to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Kenya in post-election ethnic violence two years ago, when some 1,000 people were killed and 300,000 others forced to flee their homes.

New York: Dozens of farmers, veterinarians and farm workers have been infected with Rift Valley fever in South Africa, and at least two people have died, the United Nations World Health Organization has reported.

New York: Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium, is now also the global leader when it comes to the production of hashish, according to a new United Nations survey.