Latest World Bank News

IMF chief warns that world risks falling into slow-growth rut and urges China to enact reforms

Oct. 24, 2024 09:52 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world economy, buffeted by conflict and growing geopolitical rivalries, is in danger of getting stuck in a slow-growth, high-debt rut, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday. She also urged Chinese leaders to take more decisive action to jump-start their...

Yellen says isolationism 'made America and the world worse off' in speech to global finance leaders

Oct. 22, 2024 10:50 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told world financial leaders Tuesday that the U.S. economy has grown stronger because the Biden administration rejected isolationism, offering a barely veiled criticism of former President Donald Trump’s policies two weeks before the U.S....

US presidential election looms over IMF and World Bank annual meetings

Oct. 17, 2024 16:01 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global finance leaders face a major uncertainty as they meet in Washington next week: Who will win the U.S. presidential election and shape the policies of the world’s biggest economy? Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Vice...

Treasury official says withdrawing the US from the IMF and World Bank would be a 'step backward'

Oct. 11, 2024 13:08 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Withdrawing the United States from the IMF and World Bank would be “a step backward,” a top U.S. Treasury official said Friday, defending the organizations before a presidential election that could cast uncertainty about America's future in them. In advance of...

Solar power companies are growing fast in Africa, where 600 million still lack electricity

Oct. 05, 2024 00:35 AM EDT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Companies that bring solar power to some of the poorest homes in Central and West Africa are said to be among the fastest growing on a continent whose governments have long struggled to address some of the world's worst infrastructure and the complications of climate...

Palestinians in West Bank risk crossing Israel's separation barrier to flee failing economy

Oct. 02, 2024 05:24 AM EDT

YATTA, West Bank (AP) — At dawn in mid-May, Sayyed Ayyed and dozens of other unemployed Palestinian men gathered at the foot of the towering wall of concrete and barbed wire dividing the occupied West Bank from Israel. A smuggler was there with a ladder and ropes. Each man handed...

Money Gambians send home from Europe is a lifeline for their families but the sacrifices take a toll

Sep. 28, 2024 00:08 AM EDT

KWINELLA, Gambia (AP) — Binta Bah met her husband last year on a dating app and instantly fell in love. They spent hours every day glued to their mobile phones and soon got married on a video call. But they've met in person only once, when Suleyman Bah came home to Gambia for a...

In diesel-dependent East Timor, renewable energy transition remains slow despite government pledges

Sep. 10, 2024 00:34 AM EDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — East Timor is at an energy development crossroads. While the small Southeast Asian nation — and one of the world's youngest countries — has made international and domestic pledges to reduce its carbon footprint through untapped solar and other...

East Timor looks to the pope's visit as a reward after 20 years of fragile stability

Sep. 08, 2024 04:15 AM EDT

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor is in a festive mood as it prepares for the arrival of Pope Francis on his first trip to the deeply Catholic country, hard on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the referendum on independence from Indonesia. Francis is due to arrive Monday in...

The trash in Mali's capital is piling up. Donkey carts are coming to help

Aug. 18, 2024 00:13 AM EDT

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — When handling the garbage of a city of over 3 million people and equipped with little more than a face mask and gloves, it helps to have a sense of humor. Yacouba Diallo decided to name the two donkeys that pull his cart after his cousins, Keita and Kanté. ...