The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
• International finacial institutions (IFIs) are powerful. IFIs get into contractual agreements with borrowing governments and, in turn, the citizens of these countries are bound by the terms of these agreements. But citizens have virtually no say in the negotiations
Interview with Anil Naidoo, Director of the Blue Planet Project, which is fighting against the commercialisation of water. Anil Naidoo was a key organiser of the alternative forum as a counter to the World Water Forum in Mexico City recently. He is Director of the Blue Planet Project, an international …
• A report found that 12 months after a ban on smoking in bars in New Zealand, there were no downturn in bar sales, tourism or employment, contrary to predictions of serious economic consequences to the hospital industry following the ban. • The Center for Biological Diversity recently filed a …
in paul wolfowitz's selection as World Bank president, global democracy has taken a sharp fall. Since its formation after World War II, the president of the bank has been nominated by the us , with European powers always nodding approval. In return, Europe gets to nominate the International Monetary Fund's …
Brazil wants the International Monetary Fund (imf) to consider money utilised for science as infrastructure investment rather than current expenditure. If the imf buys this argument, Brazil could substantially increase its allocation for science-related matters. The country's science minister, Eduardo Campos, has even appealed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific …
a series of anti-globalisation protests in Washington D C against the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (imf) were unable to recreate the spark of the earlier years. The meeting which took place from September 25-29, 2002 failed to even produce the expected number of …
a recent report has blamed the International Monetary Fund (imf) and World Bank for putting pressure on Malawi, a southern African nation, to sell 28,000 metric tonnes (mt) of maize to Kenya, resulting in widespread famine in the country. The report has been released by uk-based Jubilee Research Foundation, which …
Over 17 million people across Indonesia, the fourth largest nation of the world, are facing acute food shortages. Food and horticulture minister A M Saefuddin said that the country is at the brink of a famine. In the densely-populated provinces of east and central Java alone, 4.4 million people can …
TWO directions of thinking about environmental problems are prominent in the wake of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervention in South Korea. On the one hand, the priority is to save the economy and, therefore, environmental issues should be put aside for the time being or treated as secondary. The …
before the Group of Seven (g-7) summit began on June 27 in Lyon, France, there was considerable brouhaha over the world's richest countries trying to persuade the World Bank (wb) and the International Monetary Fund (imf) for a new debt relief plan in order to assist the eight to 20 …
The announcement of the 10- year long, us $25 billion Africa Development Initiative comes as a much needed helping hand for a continent sinking into the quagmire of increasing debt and poverty. The joint programme involving the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and its own agencies, aims at setting …
AN alternative structural adjustment programme (asap), formulated by the Guyana-based Bretton Woods Reform Organisation (bwro), has managed to garner German support for itself. Backed by Germany's ministry of economic cooperation and development, asap is working on over 100 major policy recommendations for the development of people's priorities in every sector …
Congolese President Pascal Lissouba has said that the lending policies of development institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are "deadly" for the heavily indebted nations of Africa because of the social costs of their tough economic reform programmes. Lissouba's own nation is reeling under one of the world's heaviest …
HUMANS, their thoughts and activities are the source of all Earthly evil and good. The Cold War has had a destabilising effect on many societies, in the short term. Unemployment and poverty are gnawing away at less developed societies, corroding the existing value system. The substantial material progress achieved during …
THE 50th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) has certainly not been an auspicious one. Since early this year, these agencies have been ' facing a lot of flak. Environmentalists have constantly accused them of flouting basic environmental norms, and going ahead …
AS GOVERNMENTS the world over loosen their grip over their economies and markets go global, structural adjustments and a rapid economic transition has placed agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the driver's seat. But the scenario of improving balance of payments and reduced debt crises goes hand in …
BRITISH aid agency Oxfam has flayed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) for their complacent approach to the problems caused in sub-Saharan Africa because of its huge external debt, which is in excess of $183 billion. "After a decade of structural adjustment programmes implemented under the …
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund statistics show military spending in the world, excluding the countries of the former Soviet Union, fell from 3.9 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 1986 to 3.1 per cent in 1992. The fund predicts a further decline to 2.3 per cent of global GDP …
SUB-SAHARAN Africa's debts have increased three-fold since 1980 and the only prospect is that the arrears will mount as just half the scheduled payments are being met. Solutions being explored range from implementing the so-called Trinidad terms to creating a UN Economic Security Council (ESC), whose 11 permanent members would …
