Just eight weeks after IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn ventured the expertise of his organization to help the international community to “think outside of the box” on climate financing, the IMF staff has delivered: Print-fresh from Washington’s 19th Street comes a short, but content-heavy paper by two IMF economists on how an international Green Fund partially financed by climate-SDRs could be set-up with the goal of generating some US$ 100 billion per year by 2010. By Liane Schalatek
The good news: the IMF says it does not want to create, finance or manage the Green Fund — unless, of course, a G20 decision might force the institution to do it anyway… Alas, this seems at present quite unlikely, since apparently the IMF’s Board of Directors already rejected the proposal in a formal board meeting a few weeks ago ... ... this article will come up in WDEV 2/Mar-Apr 2010 and is for subscribers only. For direct log in >>> click here.If you have no subscription >>> pick your option or >>>
After decades of isolation - imposed by major OECD countries out of concern for the country's human rights violations - Myanmar is emerging as a new darling of the "West" - judging by the accelerating succession of visits by senior officials and gurus. New groups of investors are waiting to enter the country as soon as possible.
Persistent high unemployment, the euro area debt crisis and premature fiscal austerity have already slowed global growth and factor into the possibility of a new recession. Now the United Nations have downgraded significantly its forecasts for the world economy in the next year.
Eastern European states are in for a new round of the crisis. The external control of the banking sector and high reliance on external credit has landed the countries of Eastern Europe in a vulnerable position. Now, credit flows from Western banks are drying up again. Hungary has been the first country in the region to ask for IMF support again.
While the G20 efforts to manage global aggregate demand, exchange rate management and stronger regulation of the international financial sector have not worked out quite as planned, in Cannes the Group was further solidifying its role in directing the system of multilateral institutions.
In November 2011, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is celebrating its 50th anniversary.The new Minister, Dirk Niebel of the (neo)-liberal FDP has launched a 'radical change of course'. In the recent edition of the Reality of Aid shadow report the change is analyzed.