The Media Line Staff
Cairo, Egypt David Rosenberg / The Med – An International Monetary Fund loan critical to propping up Egypt’s teetering economy is being jeopardized by domestic political infighting that threatens to delay or even scuttle the program, economists say. An IMF delegation left Cairo late on Tuesday after 17 days of talks apparently without reaching any agreement on the conditions for the $3.2 billion package. In a statement issued on its departure, the Washington-based financial institution said that Cairo needed to “mobilize the required political support for this program” before its board could approve the aid. “Broad-based support for a national economic program is essential to bolster confidence and ensure its successful implementation in the [...] Continue Reading…
IMF aid becomes Egyptian political football
April 12th, 2012 
davidguide European Central Bank keeps low benchmark interest rate
April 5th, 2012 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – The European Central Bank chose to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 1 percent over concerns about the lingering sovereign debt crisis. ECB officials held their monthly meeting a day early because of the Easter holiday and chose not to roll back the low interest rate the bank had implemented as an emergency measure to combat the sovereign debt crisis. After the meeting, ECB president Mario Draghi said that it was premature to talk about an “exit strategy” from the emergency measures. Although Draghi said last month that the worst of the crisis was over, that was before Spain saw its cost of borrowing rise [...] Continue Reading…
In land of no loans, consumer debt mounts
April 3rd, 2012 davidguide The Media Line Staff
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (The Media Line) – When Reem Muhammad sought a personal loan to pay off some lingering debts, a Saudi bank offered 100,000 riyals ($26,667). The price tag? Repayment of the loan, plus 33,000 riyals. “I took the loan and repaid it, but I never knew what the 33,000 was for since it wasn’t interest,” Muhammad, 38, told The Media Line. “But it sure felt like interest.” Muhammad is one of thousands of Saudis taking advantage of Saudi Arabia’s healthy economy and banks’ increasing willingness to offer personal loans and credit cards. Her loan also illustrates the continuing debate in the Saudi banking industry whether some aspects of the loan system contravene [...] Continue Reading…
While White House Emphasizes Easing Student Debt Burden, Fed Contractors Play Hardball with debtors
March 30th, 2012 davidguide ProPublica Staff
Washington, DC, United States (ProPublica) – by Marian Wang It was with some fanfare that the Obama administration announced last fall that it was ramping up a program to help students with federal loans reduce their monthly payments. Under the program, payments are adjusted based on how much students earn — what’s known as income-based repayment. Yet, even while the administration has emphasized easing the burden for student borrowers, some contractors with the Department of Education appear to be exacerbating it. Bloomberg reported this week that some federally contracted debt collection agencies have been playing hardball with borrowers who are behind: insisting on payments the borrowers can’t afford; even when federal student-loan rules [...] Continue Reading…
Landmines hurting farmers’ livelihoods in Democratic Republic of Congo
March 28th, 2012 davidguide Kabalo, Dr Congo (IRIN) – Landmines planted about a decade ago in parts of Kabalo territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) southeastern Katanga Province are adversely affecting farming livelihoods, and an important World Food Program (WFP) project. “In our area, there are villages where we get much harvest but the road leading to those villages [has] landmines,” a food trader from Kabalo said. Lorries often get blown up by the landmines, Birindwa Murhula, a leader of one of the local food traders’ associations, told IRIN. Kabalo, formerly the breadbasket of mineral-rich Katanga Province, was affected by DRC’s 1998-2003 civil wars. The Mpaye area, for example, served as a demarcation zone separating belligerents when Zimbabwean-backed [...] Continue Reading…
Will pressure make Chinese aid more transparent?
March 27th, 2012 davidguide London (IRIN) – Critics have long characterized China as a secretive donor in economically poor but resource-rich countries, funding infrastructure construction in an unspoken bid for business deals and access to natural wealth and land. While China disburses aid with a scant paper trail, analysts say strong-arming its government to boost transparency – and aid efficacy – may hurt countries in need. In Southeast Asia, Chinese-funded projects have become ubiquitous in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, countries once passed over by traditional donors. In river-rich Laos, a government development plan calls for 55 new dams to generate hydroelectric power, many of them funded by Chinese state-owned companies. Laotian media reported that China’s government recently signed five agreements pledging [...] Continue Reading…
Obama nominates health care expert to head World Bank
March 24th, 2012 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank. Kim is a public health expert and advocate. He was an unexpected choice to lead the global financial institution and was not among the names publicly discussed to replace the outgoing Robert Zoellick. The head of the international financial organization publicly announced in February that he would step down at the end of his five-year term on June 30. In naming Kim, Obama said he was seeking someone with deep expertise in global public health to head the World Bank. Obama referred to the bank as “the world’s [...] Continue Reading…
Microfinance – possibilities and limitations
March 14th, 2012 davidguide London, United Kingdom (IRIN) – The scope of microfinance to lift poor people out of poverty and provide mechanisms of empowerment is being challenged as questions are raised about the supporting evidence. In a discussion hosted by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the academic evidence was concluded to be unclear, unreliable and inconclusive. “[There is] no clear evidence that microfinance has any positive or negative impacts,” said Maren Duvendack, ODI fellow and author of a recent systematic review of microfinance, while David Roodman, of the Centre for Global Development, added: “I [wouldn't] say microfinance doesn’t work, I would say it does not systematically reduce poverty. We do not have credible academic evidence that microcredit on average [...] Continue Reading…
European Central Bank leaves key interest rate unchanged
March 9th, 2012 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – European Central Bank (ECB) officials left the benchmark interest rate of 1 percent unchanged. The bank has not changed the rate since November. The ECB has provided European banks with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of loan-interest loans in an effort to keep financial markets supplied with cheap cash. The ECB also has bought government bonds from countries such as Spain and Italy in an effort to help lower borrowing costs for governments within the troubled eurozone that have been hit by the sovereign debt crisis. ECB president Mario Draghi says that the strategy of loosening credit has improved the risk environment. However, the strategy [...] Continue Reading…
Thousands of refugees miss out on UNHCR living allowance
March 7th, 2012 davidguide Cairo, Egypt (IRIN) – Thousands of registered refugees in Cairo are no longer receiving a monthly US$33-66 per person living allowance from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) after Caritas, one of UNHCR’s service providers in Egypt, closed its office on 7 February. Caritas, which assists UNHCR with the payment of allowances and health services, was forced into the move after the Egyptian government withheld its funds. The Ministry of Social Solidarity reviews all incoming foreign funds destined for NGOs in Egypt. Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef believes there is a link between “administrative delays” faced by registered NGOs and the prosecution or investigation of NGOs allegedly receiving unregistered funds. Many of the roughly 12,000 affected [...] Continue Reading…
