Online Media Briefing Center (OMBC) news for accredited journalists
Highlights
Under the updated rules, companies bidding on international civil works contracts—such as the construction and maintenance of transportation and energy infrastructure—must ensure that 30% of labor cost is local.
While some countries have reduced flaring, the top nine largest-flaring countries continue to account for three-quarters of all flaring, but less than half of global oil production.
The partnership agreement, signed by World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, formalizes multiple engagements between the two institutions over the last year, and marks the World Bank Group’s first concrete step to reengage with nuclear power in decades.
The report, Radical Debt Transparency, shows that while the proportion of low-income countries publishing some debt data has grown from below 60% to more than 75% since 2020, only 25% disclose loan-level information on newly contracted debt.
Slovenia has announced a 30% increase in its contribution to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), reinforcing its commitment to supporting the world's poorest countries.
As conflicts have become more frequent and deadly in the 2020s, these economies are falling behind all other economies in key indicators of development, the analysis finds.
Flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing economies—a key propellant of economic growth and higher living standards—have dwindled to the lowest level since 2005 amid rising trade and investment barriers.
Domestic food price inflation remains high in most low- and lower-middle-income countries.
