Thursday, August 14, 2008
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Today's Headlines:
UN Announces Program To Help Hunger Hot Spots
High Food Costs Could Worsen LatAm Poverty-Report
Rebuilding From Deadly Earthquake in China to Cost $147 Billion
INTERVIEW-Time Short for Climate Pact, Draft by Mid-09 - UN
IMF to Prod Countries on Currency Valuation
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UN Announces Program To Help Hunger Hot Spots
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"A UN agency rolled out a $214 million program Tuesday to help 16 needy places hit hard by high prices for food and oil, amid a crisis already making it hard for aid groups to provide enough food for the world's hungry.
The World Food Program said almost 1 billion poor people around the world are struggling to survive amid the higher prices. The agency is trying to reach those in critical need of assistance in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. ... The plan will provide assistance to groups such as pregnant women, undernourished children and people living in urban areas affected most by the food crisis. The Rome-based agency also hopes to cut transportation costs and help support farmers in countries where emergency food can be bought locally. ..." [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]
AP adds however that "... 'the agency already faces 'obstacles' in procuring food, particularly when trying to buy supplies locally, spokeswoman Brenda Barton said. 'At the markets where we have been buying food, it has become just too expensive,' Barton told The Associated Press by telephone. And, she added, 'a lot of markets just don't have any food to buy.'
The price crisis is affecting many humanitarian groups. 'At a local level, food prices are increasing, and that, of course, impacts on our programs, making them more expensive,' said Chris Leather of the relief group Oxfam." [The Associated Press/Factiva]
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High Food Costs Could Worsen LatAm Poverty-Report
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"More than 26 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could be pushed into extreme poverty if world food prices stay high, according to a report published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) this week.
The Washington-based regional bank, which focuses on development issues in Latin America, said countries should strengthen social programs to ease the impact of higher world food prices on their poorest citizens. ... The report said poor families are hardest hit by the soaring prices because much of their income is spent on food and higher costs would force them to cut back, possibly leading to increased malnutrition and hunger.
The report said Central American and Caribbean nations that import food were most threatened by the higher prices. To avoid increased poverty, countries such as Haiti, for example, would need to transfer 12 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to the poor, Peru would need to transfer 4.4 percent of its GDP and Nicaragua 3.7 percent, the IADB report said. Among the richer economies, Mexico will need to transfer 2 percent of its GDP to the poor to avoid a deepening of income poverty and Brazil 1.28 percent of GDP. ..." [Reuters/Factiva]
AE Brazil writes that "World food inflation can drive 6.16 million Brazilians to poverty, according to [the] study published Tuesday by the IADB, reported Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo on Wednesday. The IDB forecasts that the share of Brazilians living under the poverty line could jump to 31.5 percent of the population, from 28.3 percent, if food prices remain at high levels. ..." [AE Brazil/Factiva]
Caribbean Media Corporation reports "... The IADB said that to support such initiatives it will provide a $500 million credit line for countries to improve agricultural productivity and expand cash transfer programmes. The Bank said it was already working with Mexico, Honduras and Jamaica to expand and strengthen their existing social protection programmes in order to help the poor cope with the rising cost of food. ..." [Caribbean Media Corporation news agency/Factiva]
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Rebuilding From Deadly Earthquake in China to Cost $147 Billion
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"The Chinese government estimates it will cost about $147 billion to rebuild areas that were devastated by May's deadly earthquake.
The National Development and Reform Commission's draft rebuilding plan was published this week. State media says it calls for rebuilding 3,400 primary schools in hard-hit Sichuan province and the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi. ..." [The Canadian Press/Factiva]
AP adds that the "... draft rebuilding plan published this week includes new homes for more than 3 million rural households, as well as the creation of jobs for about 1 million people, The China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday. ..." [The Associated Press/Factiva]
Dow Jones reports "Companies hit by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan will be given preferential treatment for raising funds on China's capital markets, Chinese financial regulators said Wednesday, as part of a raft of measures aimed at supporting post-quake reconstruction work. ... According to a statement jointly issued by China's banking, securities and insurance regulators, and the People's Bank of China, the central bank, the measures will stay in effect for three years, or until Jun. 30, 2011. The application and review process will be sped up for companies in the quake areas that want to go public or make secondary offerings of shares, the statement said. Fundraising plans that involve quake reconstruction and rebuilding will also be given priority when being reviewed by regulators, the statement said. ..." [Dow Jones/Factiva]
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INTERVIEW-Time Short for Climate Pact, Draft by Mid-09 - UN
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"Time is short to work out a new treaty to fight global warming as planned by the end of 2009 because drafts of a deal must be ready in less than a year, the UN's top climate change official said on Wednesday.
Negotiators from almost 200 nations will meet in Accra, Ghana, from August 21-27 to discuss elements of a future pact such as deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, ways to slow deforestation and aid for developing nations to adapt. 'Time is short,' Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters of a timetable meant to end with agreement on a new climate treaty to succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol at a meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009. 'If you are going to negotiate something in Copenhagen in December in 2009 the elements of that negotiation have to be available six months before,' he said. So far, only vague proposals have been floated at the talks. Asked about what Accra would achieve, de Boer said: 'To make a squirrel analogy I hope we gather more nuts. I hope we get more specific proposals.'
The talks are the third session this year to work out a pact to slow rising temperatures blamed by the UN Climate Panel on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels that could bring desertification, shift monsoons, and raise world sea levels. De Boer said he did not believe the collapse of the world trade talks last month and an economic slowdown in many rich nations would derail efforts to confront climate change. ...
The Accra meeting will be the first since the Group of Eight industrialised nations agreed a vision last month of cutting world greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2050. De Boer said it was unclear, however, whether the 2050 target would help. He has called 2050 too distant and urged nearer-term goals to force politicians to act now, rather than leave cuts to a future generation. ..." [Reuters/Factiva]
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IMF to Prod Countries on Currency Valuation
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"The International Monetary Fund says it will prod countries to change exchange rates that do not reflect economic fundamentals and cause problems for other nations.
The ad hoc consultations announced Tuesday are part of a process outlined in new guidelines on implementing the rules on currency surveillance that the IMF introduced more than a year ago. ... Mark Allen, director of the IMF's Policy Development and Review Department, said at a news conference consultations would be initiated if the IMF becomes concerned that a country is violating rules that govern global currency relations or that a currency may be significantly misaligned and causing external instability.
''The purpose of this is to persuade members to adjust their policies in their own interest and in the interest of the international system,'' Allen said. ''Ultimately, this is not about pinning labels on countries. It's about trying to ensure that policies are adjusted so that we can get a smoother development of the international economy and more crisis-free adjustment process.' ..." [International Herald Tribune and Reuters/Factiva]
FT writes that "The IMF has recommended that Saudi Arabia consider alternative exchange regimes to its 22-year currency peg to the US dollar if inflation persists and the creation of a Gulf monetary union is delayed. The IMF said in a public information notice published on its website on Tuesday that the peg had provided a "credible anchor that has contributed to macroeconomic stability". It said that most of the Fund's directors believed the benefits of maintaining the peg outweighed the cost of higher short term inflation. But it added that a number of its directors felt that 'all policy options,' including other exchange rate regimes, should remain under review given the riyal's undervaluation and the limited role of monetary policy. ..." [The Financial Times/Factiva]
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Also in This Edition... Briefly Noted...
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The World Bank's private sector lender said on Wednesday it was in very early talks with South Africa's Eskom on possible financing to help the power utility company boost capacity. "We are in exploratory talks with Eskom," an International Finance Corp spokesman told Reuters. Although IFC mainly lends to private-sector companies in developing countries, it has recently increased lending to state-owned firms. Reuters/Factiva]
Late diagnosis and treatment means that more than 80 percent of people infected with H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia have died, researchers reported on Wednesday. An analysis of outbreaks in Indonesia, the country hardest hit by bird flu, affirms that quick treatment with antiviral drugs can save lives. [Reuters/Factiva]
Lars Thunell, Executive Vice President and CEO of International Finance Corporation (IFC), is expected to visit Tajikistan on August 14-16. [Asia-PLUS Daily Blitz/Factiva]
President Hugo Chavez's government has removed five items from the list of 50 staple foods subject to price controls, Venezuela's official gazette said Tuesday. Freed from control were the prices of pork, oats, mortadella, tuna and salt. The gazette also announced price increases by varying percentage points for several other products including beef, mayonnaise, tomato sauces, margarines, some kinds of bread, pasta, and oil. [EFE News Service/Factiva]
With global warming expected to hit Africa hard, some companies in the "forgotten continent" are taking action themselves to fight climate change... Kenyan firms including national flag carrier Kenya Airways, brewer East African Breweries and others are now actively studying ways to "green" their operations to help lessen the blow. [Reuters News]
The Philippine government is set to sign an agreement that will allow the Japan Mining Engineering Center for International Cooperation, or JMEC, to conduct mapping operations for potential copper and gold reserves in the country, a senior government official said Thursday. [Dow Jones Asian Equities Report]
A world trade deal that dramatically opens livestock markets in the European Union, Canada and Japan is within grasp if talks that collapsed last month in Geneva can be revived. World Trade Director General Pascal Lamy visited India this week and will be in Washington next week to see if it is still possible to rescue the deal. In New Delhi, he told reporters he still believed there was chance to finish negotiations by the end of 2008 despite last month's major setback. [Reuters News]
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