Topic category 1

The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, has confirmed that Ireland will exit the EU-IMF bailout programme without needing a precautionary credit line from its international partners.

Kenny told the Daíl, the Republic's parliament, on Thursday that now was the right time, adding that the Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, was travelling to Brussels to relay Dublin's decision to the EU.

Honduras' ruling party presidential candidate Juan Hernandez said on Tuesday he hoped to strike a financing deal with the IMF within six months if he were to win this month's election and would also seek to refinance the country's heavy debt burden.

Hernandez, the National Party candidate who is vying to succeed outgoing President Porfirio Lobo, has risen in recent polls, overtaking Liberty and Refoundation candidate Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted former leader Manuel Zelaya.

FRANKFURT — In a surprise, the European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low Thursday, moving more quickly than expected to stimulate the euro zone economy in the face of falling inflation.

The E.C.B. cut its main rate to 0.25 percent from 0.5 percent, which was already a record low.

Croatia may seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund as next year’s borrowing needs become "enormous and very risky," Finance Minister Slavko Linic said.

The European Union’s newest member needs to borrow 44 billion kuna ($7.7 billion) next year to refinance debt and service a budget gap of 16 billion kuna, Linic told Zagreb-based weekly magazine Globus. Government spokeswoman Zinka Bardic confirmed Linic’s statements by phone.

The World Bank and the European Union (EU) on Monday pledged 8.25 billion U.S. dollars to boost economic growth and lift more people out of devastating poverty in Africa's Sahel region.

The announcement came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim on Monday reached conflict- torn Mali for a visit, which will also take the two to Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved on Wednesday, 30 October 2013 in Tunis, a US$ 94.37 million (UA 61.68 million) ADF loan and US$ 1.85 million (UA 1.21 million) ADF grant to the Government of Kenya to finance phase one of the Thwake Multi-purpose Water Development Program (TMWDP).

The objective of the project is to increase water storage for rural and urban human consumption, for irrigation and livestock and for hydropower, with a principal focus on the semi-arid counties of Kitui and Makueni, and the ICT city of Konza.

The International Monetary Fund has for the first time warned that sub-Saharan African countries are becoming “increasingly vulnerable to global financial shocks” as they intensify their reliance on foreign investors.

The warning in its twice yearly review of the region comes as African frontier markets such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya fret about the side-effects of tighter monetary policy in the US.

A group of researchers on Tuesday, October 29 at the ongoing Africa Economic Conference in Johannesburg reaffirmed the need to step up investment in physical infrastructure and remove non-tariff barriers to facilitate regional trade across the continent.

The Bank of Japan's massive stimulus is working, the International Monetary Fund's mission chief to Japan said, and there is still room to increase purchases of government bonds and exchange-traded funds if a further boost was needed.

Jerry Schiff, who is also deputy director of the IMF's Asia-Pacific Department, stressed he saw no need for the central bank to offer additional stimulus for now with the world's third-largest economy in good shape.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has come with concrete proposals aimed at helping Africa address the key challenges that are hampering its agricultural sector and food security in the continent.