May 2013

Child Malnutrition Costs Global Economy Billions Yearly – Report

Inter Press Service, 29 May, 2013
In addition to the serious health problems it causes, child malnutrition is costing the global economy tens of billions of dollars a year by depriving its victims of the ability to learn basic skills, according to a new report released by Save the Children (STC).
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IMF cuts 2013 China growth forecast to ‘around 7.75%’

The Economics Times, 29 May, 2013
The International Monetary Fundexpects China’s economy to grow “around 7.75 per cent” in 2013, a top fund official said Wednesday, lower than the 8.0 per cent the organisation forecast last month. “The Chinese economy is expected to grow at around 7.75% this year and at about the same pace next year,” David Lipton, IMF first deputy managing director, told reporters in Beijing, blaming slower export growth for the lower figure.
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Global Tracking Framework Puts Numbers to Sustainable Energy Goals

The World Bank, 28 May, 2013
The Sustainable Energy for All Global Tracking Framework Report, released at the Vienna Energy Forum on May 28, presents detailed country-level and global data that outline the scale of the challenges ahead as countries try to meet the three objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative: providing universal access to modern energy, doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, and doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency – all by 2030.
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Africa is the growth continent for the 21st century

WTO News, 22 May, 2013
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech at the University of Nairobi on 22 May 2013, said: “Africans today are more confident and hopeful in the future than ever before. This is also the great transformation that I have seen in the attitude of African negotiators in WTO: confident that trade, if coupled with domestic policies and Aid for Trade can be an engine for growth.”
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Development bank needs to do more

Bangkok Post, 20 May, 2013
For more than eight years, former Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Haruhiko Kuroda spoke of the Japanese-led multilateral development bank’s commitment to fighting poverty in the Asia-Pacific region. How ironic it is that today there is much debate over whether monetary policies now being pursued by Mr Kuroda in his new role as head of Japan’s central bank will do more to destabilise economies in developing Asia than the ADB did to help them.
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World Bank’s Jim Yong Kim embraces private equity

Finance Asia, 20 May, 2013
Jim Yong Kim journeyed on the road to Damascus. Just as the early Christian apostle Paul was suddenly converted to a new faith, the recently installed president of the World Bank Group has similarly changed belief in the case by raising the need for private capital to drive economic development in emerging markets.
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Rising income disparity hits global economic growth – IMF chief

The Guardian, 19 May, 2013
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has decried rising income disparity, noting its harmful effect on global economic growth. Lagarde, in a speech on poverty reduction in Washington, said the top 0.5 percent of the global population holds over 35 percent of the wealth.
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Post-2015 development agenda must reflect all dimensions of sustainability

The Guardian, 13 May, 2013
There are few more inspiring thoughts than the one set out in the vision of the United Nations secretary general’s high-level panel (HLP), namely that extreme poverty can be eradicated in our time. It is a vision and a belief that compels us all to take action.
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UN, African experts seek review of continent’s growth agenda

The Guardian, 13 May, 2013
Against the backdrop of the alleged inadequacies of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), experts drawn from the United Nations (UN) and Africa, among others, have urged a review of the targets for the continent’s development.
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Can we deal with poverty and sustainability together?

Reuters, 13 May, 2013
May is a busy month for the Post-Rio+20 and the Post-2015 processes. Among the upcoming meetings and events are the launch of the draft report from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the posting of the draft resolution for the high level political forum, the 3rd meeting of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the release of the final report of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
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Aadhaar to help eradicate poverty: World Bank chief

Business Standard, 10 May, 2013
Describing Aadhaar card as one of the best example of integration of technology for social welfare use, the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, believes that this massive effort by the Indian Government would help in achieving the goal of poverty eradication by 2030.
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Why China Cannot Lead The Global Economy

Forbes, 09 May, 2013
The 19th century was the British century. The 20th century was the American century. Will the 21st Century be China’s century? Most likely not, as China misses four conditions that make economic growth sustainable.
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World Bank turns to hydropower to square development with climate change

The Washington Post, 08 May, 2013
The World Bank is making a major push to develop large-scale hydropower projects around the globe, something it had all but abandoned a decade ago but now sees as crucial to resolving the tension between economic development and the drive to tame carbon use.
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Poverty amid progress in Asia worries ADB chief

The Hindu, 03 May, 2013
With Asia still facing many developmental challenges despite remarkable growth in the past few decades, Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao lamented that the region was still home to over 800 million people steeped in poverty.
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UNDP, ITFC join hands to fight poverty and create jobs in Arab region

New Straits Times, 03 May 2013
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) of the Islamic Development Bank agreed to cooperate on fighting poverty and creating jobs in the Arab States region.
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Struggling factories underline fragility of world growth

Reuters, 02 May 2013
Manufacturing across the world stumbled last month, underlining the fragility of the global economy and building the case for more action from leading central banks. Gloomy purchasing managers indexes – surveys of factory activity that correlate strongly with economic activity – added to a string of other economic data that has already soured optimism that a budding pickup in the world economy will flower.
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Beating hunger will need more nutrition aid, says report

Guardian, 01 May, 2013
Ambitions to eradicate world hunger will not be realised if aid for basic nutrition remains at only 0.4% of total official development assistance (ODA), according to the research group Development Initiatives (DI). Even though nutrition aid is rising, it remains far below what is needed, the DI report says.
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World Bank pares India GDP growth to 6%

The New Indian Express, 01 May, 2013
The World Bank revised its growth forecast for the Indian economy in 2013-14 to 6.1%, lower than its 7% estimate six months ago. The drop came at the back of lower agricultural growth at 2% instead of the previous 2.7%, even though the country is expecting normal monsoon.
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