Washington Post (January 9)
“After rebounding sharply in 2021 from the depths of the pandemic, the global economy grew by 3 percent in 2022, dipped to a 2.6 percent rate last year and is expected to post a tepid 2.4 percent this year” according to the World Bank. “Those rates lag the 3.1 percent average for the decade of the 2010s.”
Tags: 2.4%, 2.6%, 2010s, 2021, 2022, 3.1%, 3%, Global economy, Lag, Pandemic, Rebounding, Tepid, World Bank
The Economist (July 14)
“Throughout rural parts of South Asia and Africa…mini-grids are increasingly seen as one of the most promising ways of connecting the 1.1bn people in the world who still lack access to electricity.” According to the World Bank, this will also require “microfinance and vocational training” to help users make the best use of electrification.
Tags: Access, Africa, Electricity, Electrification, Microfinance, Mini-grids, Promising, Rural, South Asia, Vocational training, World Bank
Fortune (February Issue)
The cost of “suffocating air pollution” is higher than imagined. The World Bank had estimated in 2016 that air pollution resulted in health costs of $5 trillion a year, but other losses could especially hit developing countries. “High pollution levels are capable of causing net out-migration of 5%—a potentially devastating economic blow, especially because those most likely to leave are wealthy and educated.”
Tags: Air pollution, Cost, Devastating, Educated, Health, Migration, Suffocating, Wealthy, World Bank
Institutional Investor (November 23)
“After the global financial crisis of 2008-’09, a burgeoning gap in financing for long-term investments pushed many governments to take matters into their own hands. In fact, 17 new strategic investment funds have launched since 2008.” So far, these funds have received little scrutiny, but a recent World Bank study now suggests that these SIF’s “can promote economic growth” while delivering viable commercial returns: fulfilling their so called double-bottom-line mandate.
Tags: Commercial returns, Double-bottom-line mandate, Economic growth, Financing, Global financial crisis, Governments, Long-term investments, SIF, World Bank
Institutional Investor (August 31)
The World Bank may finally be “ready to think big again.” The appointment of Paul Romer has those who follow the bank excited. Romer, “who has championed urbanization as a driver of emerging-market growth, wants to have a big impact at the development bank.”
Tags: Appointment, Development bank, Emerging-market growth, Impact, Romer, Urbanization, World Bank
Bloomberg (July 15)
“Cross-border private capital is so readily available for good emerging-market borrowers that multilateral lenders such as the World Bank are having to explain why they’re needed any longer. To justify their existence, they’re trying to recast themselves as repositories of development expertise.” With the BRICS poised to create their own new currency reserve fund and development bank, the proposed institutions look anachronistic. The BRICS just “don’t need their own bank.”
Tags: Borrowers, BRICS, Capital, Cross-border, Currency reserve fund, Development bank, Emerging market, Lenders, World Bank
Washington Post (June 12)
“The world is wildly off-target in its effort—if you can call it that—to limit global temperature rise to only 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels. Last year saw the highest level of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions ever, and the Earth is on a path to warm between 3.6 and 5.3 degrees, an outcome the World Bank recently warned would be very disruptive to human civilization.”
Tags: CO2, Earth, Emissions, Energy, Global warming, Temperature, World Bank
Financial Times (March 23)
The system which allows the U.S. to appoint the World Bank president and Europe to appoint the IMF head is “unfair.” That said, the Financial Times does, however, support President Obama’s surprise choice: Jim Yong Kim. “There is no indication that the White House will now allow an open contest for the World Bank…. But if Mr. Kim is indeed appointed, it will be a choice that the rest of the world can welcome.”
Tags: Europe, IMF, Jim Yong Kim, U.S., World Bank
The Economist (January 21, 2012)
The concept of limited liability, which protects shareholders, “is one of the greatest wealth-creating inventions of all time.” In many places, however, companies can be set up to hide or disguise the ultimate owners. “This is of great use to wrongdoers, and a huge headache for those who pursue them.” Both the World Bank and the OECD argue that the identities of owners should be disclosed. The Economist agrees. “Anyone registering a limited company should have to declare the names of the real people who ultimately own it, wherever they are, and report any changes. Lying about this should be a crime.”
The concept of limited liability, which protects shareholders, “is one of the greatest wealth-creating inventions of all time.” In many places, however, companies can be set up to hide or disguise the ultimate owners. “This is of great use to wrongdoers, and a huge headache for those who pursue them.” Both the World Bank and the OECD argue that the identities of owners should be disclosed. The Economist agrees. “Anyone registering a limited company should have to declare the names of the real people who ultimately own it, wherever they are, and report any changes. Lying about this should be a crime.”
The Economist (May 26)
Christine Lagarde is talented, but she should not be chosen to head the International Monetary Fund. “The stitch-up, whereby the head of the IMF is a European and the head of the World Bank is an American, is a disgrace. International posts should be filled according to merit…. Europe’s monopoly of the IMF’s leadership has long been an anomaly. It is time that it ended.”
Tags: Europe, IMF, Lagarde, U.S., World Bank
