Chronology of Coverage

Oct. 14, 2014

World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim, frustrated with slow global response to Ebola outbreak, has made fighting epidemic his mission, driving bank to act on Ebola with uncharacteristic speed; bank has committed $400 million to fighting disease. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

American officials are quietly lobbying against China’s plan to form big, internationally funded bank; are engaged in vigorous campaign to persuade important allies, like Australia and South Korea, to shun the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; United States Treasury Dept has criticized the bank as a deliberate effort to undercut the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. MORE

Presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, nations most affected by the Ebola outbreak, implore world leaders to increase their support to fight the disease; speak at meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. MORE

News analysis; United States is missing from World Bank declaration calling on all nations to enact laws forcing industries to pay for carbon emissions that scientists say are the leading cause of global warming; declaration, signed by 74 countries and more than 1,000 businesses, notes that governments can either directly tax carbon pollution or create market-based cap-and-trade systems, which force companies to buy government-issued pollution. MORE

Editorial warns that federal trial in Brooklyn involving accusations that Arab Bank in Jordan handled transactions for known terrorists may discourage banks from arranging remittances for migrant workers in wealthy countries on grounds that legal risk is too high; says departure of banks from remittance business would threaten years of progress on lowering remittance fees; urges World Bank to avert situation by becoming remittance center. MORE

Leaders of so-called BRICS group of nations that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announce that they are establishing a development bank to challenge influence of World Bank and International Monetary Fund; New Development Bank, based in Shanghai, will open with initial capitalization of $50 billion, and India will name bank’s first president. MORE

Editorial laments news that big banks are leaving money transfer business, arguably most effective antipoverty effort in the world for migrants working in rich countries who regularly transfer money home; calls for other low-cost options for cash transfers, including possibility of making World Bank a remittance center. MORE

World Bank, in new forecast, downgrades its estimate of world’s economic expansion, with developing economies posting disappointing growth rates and frigid winter in United States and crisis in Ukraine weighing on growth too; institution now anticipates global growth of just 2.8 percent in 2014, picking up to 3.5 percent in 2016. MORE

World Bank says China is likely to meet its economic growth target of 7.5 percent in 2014. MORE

Employees at World Bank are calling first restructuring in nearly two decades a nightmare, saying process is killing productivity and morale; World Bank leader Jim Yong Kim says that his plan, which involves breaking down regional ‘silos’ and squeezing out inefficiencies, is necessary to keep institution relevant. MORE

Concerns expressed at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual spring meetings are less about crisis and more about complacency; while euro zone has re-emerged from recession, emerging market jitters have quieted and American fiscal battles have abated, recovery remains fragile; in many cases, growth remains sluggish, leaving a jobs gap of 62 million. MORE

World Bank says it is nearly doubling its potential lending to so-called middle-income countries like China, India and Brazil, adding about $100 billion in new financing capacity over the next decade. MORE

World Bank reports that world loses or wastes 25 to 33 percent of the food it produces for consumption; such losses can mean difference between adequate diet and malnutrition in places where undernourishment is common, such as Africa and South Asia. MORE

World Bank’s economists expect global growth to increase from 2.4 percent in 2013 to 3.2 percent in 2014, and to maintain that level for the next two years; warn, however, of possible turbulence. MORE

World Bank ombudsman issues a stinging critique of the bank’s private-sector arm over a loan to a Honduran palm-oil company engaged in a violent conflict with farm workers over land tenure. MORE

Fiscal woes of United States dominate meetings of World Bank and International Monetary Fund, as world leaders forcefully warn of consequences should US fail to raise debt ceiling and reopen its government; confidence remains that impasse will be settled before default occurs, but foreign leaders say even a near-default will lead to higher borrowing costs and slowdown of global economy. MORE

Fiscal deadlock in Washington dominates meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, but leaders also discuss such issues as a coming ‘rebalancing’ of economic growth, where rich economies speed up while growth in middle-income economies slows down. MORE

World Bank lowers its growth forecast for large parts of eastern Asia; growth in the region that includes China, Thailand and the Philippines will be 7.1 percent in 2013 and 7.2 percent in 2014, according to the bank’s new projections, from 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent. MORE

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has sweeping plan to sort sprawling bank’s operations by the kinds of projects involved, like agriculture or energy, rather than by region; reorganization, first in nearly two decades, is meant to encourage collaboration. MORE

World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, says China should hit its gross domestic product growth target of 7.5 percent this year; warns rising interest rates in emerging markets, in response to reports that the United States is preparing to scale back its buying of government bonds, show that significant risk remains. MORE

Annie Lowrey It’s the Economy column examines efforts by World Bank to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030; notes modest goal seems possible because organization is only aiming to raise everyone above $1.25-a-day income threshold, which would keep people from starving but not meet other vital needs. MORE

Some European leaders gathering at annual spring meetings for World Bank and International Monetary Fund signal new willingness to slow pace of budget cuts and bolster growth on Continent; growth-oriented strategies promoted by both organizations have long been ignored in favor of austerity-only measures. MORE

World Bank will honor three winners of its Sanitation Hackathon, competition to find technological solutions that address poor sanitation and hygiene in third world; winning projects address access to functional toilets and clean water, among other issues. MORE

Europe is divided over road to recovery, with some officials clinging to pursuit of strict austerity and others calling for easing of monetary policy and some stimulus; tension will be on full display during spring meetings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank. MORE

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, five emerging world economic powers, gather in Johannesburg for summit meeting at which they plan to announce creation of new development bank, in direct challenge to dominance of World Bank and International Monetary Fund. MORE

World Bank announces long-awaited to deal to allow Myanmar to clear part of its decades-old foreign debt, totaling about $900 million, opening door for lending to jump-start its lagging economy. MORE

World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report describes ‘dramatic’ easing of financial conditions around the world, but still warns that global growth will continue to be sluggish for years to come. MORE

Treasury economist rummaging in department’s library discovers transcript of 1944 Bretton Woods conference, event that cast foundations of modern international monetary system; transcript provides new insight into the World War II meeting, at which 44 allied nations created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. MORE

New World Bank president Jim Yong Kim says the institution might help crisis-plagued high-income countries as a technical consultant, in addition to its core goal of eradicating global poverty. MORE

World Bank warns that fears about the euro zone have reduced investor tolerance for risk, leading the bank to predict slumping growth in coming years and urge poorer economies to protect themselves by reducing their debts. MORE

World Bank and the African Development Bank suspend millions of dollars of aid to Guinea-Bissau as a way to press leaders of a military coup there to return power to civilians. MORE

Europe’s problems will be at the forefront of discussions at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; some policy makers say the debt crisis is not only threatening the euro zone economy and the integrity of the common currency, but is also diminishing Europe’s influence in world affairs. MORE

World Bank names Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim its next president; widely expected appointment continues the longstanding tradition of an American leading the Washington-based development institution; board for first time considered candidates from outside the United States. MORE

Dr Jim Yong Kim sketches his vision for the World Bank, including more receptivity to the views of the poorer countries that the institution finances; also responds to criticism related to his lack of experience in economics and foreign policy and his past critiques of the bank. MORE

Op-Ed article by author Benn Steil describes how an espionage scandal at the time of the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank led to the convention of an American being chosen to lead the World Bank and a European being chosen to lead the IMF. MORE

Editorial concludes that Pres Obama’s nomination of Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank is an inspired choice, but notes that other candidates with more international economic experience should be considered. MORE

United States announces that it will provide Tunisia with a $100 million cash infusion to pay its debts to the World Bank and other international banks. MORE

World Bank, for the first time, is considering more than one candidate for its five-year presidency; two candidates from developing nations, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Jose Antonio Ocampo, are challenging American nominee Jim Yong Kim, a move that reflects the fast-growing clout of emerging economies. MORE

White House names Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert, as its nominee to lead the World Bank; Kim is an anthropologist and a physician and was a former director of the department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization. MORE

Robert B Zoellick will step down as president of the World Bank, prompting debate about whether an American should be picked to replace him; White House has said it will pick an American for its nominee, a stance that has discouraged increasingly powerful emerging countries from proposing strong alternative; research and development groups are pushing for a fairer and more transparent selection process. MORE

Report by the World Bank shows a broad reduction in extreme poverty worldwide from 2005 to 2008, and indicates that the global recession, contrary to economists’ expectations, did not increase poverty in the developing world; world has met the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme poverty in half five years before its 2015 deadline. MORE

Study by the World Bank and a Chinese government research organization warns that the country’s economic growth is likely to diminish over the next few decades unless China alters its development model and rethinks the role of government in managing the economy; calls on nation to transition to a market economy, encourage private enterprise and confront inequality and environmental degradation. MORE

Flurry of reports from the People’s Bank of China, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank suggest that China, which is preparing for a leadership change and is facing a longer-term contraction of its labor force, needs to continue with economic reforms. MORE

Robert B Zoellick will step down as the head of the World Bank when his five-year term expires on June 30. MORE

Venezuelan Foreign Ministry begins the process of pulling out of a World Bank arbitration forum that is considering about 20 cases involving property nationalized by President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government; ministry says its participation is banned by its constitution, which calls for disputes to be settled in Venezuelan courts. MORE

Jan. 18, 2012

World Bank is urging developing nations to start planning for a major slowdown in global growth for 2012; says it expects the world economy to expand an aggregate 2.5 percent for the year, down from 2.7 percent in 2011. MORE

Ominous World Bank report finds that Afghanistan will suffer a recession in 2014 and beyond after foreign troops leave and aid dwindles, and if the security situation gets worse, the country could face complete economic collapse; notes that much of Afghan government’s revenue is derived from American military and civilian spending. MORE

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