Population Surge Outstrips Efforts To Eradicate Slums

“Nearly a quarter of a billion people escaped slums in the past decade, but the housing effort was outstripped by population growth and rural exodus to the cities, the UN said. A total of 227 million people rose out of slum conditions from 2000 to 2010, thanks especially to hard work in China and India, according to the UN Human Settlements Program ( UN-Habitat)…. The bad news is that from 2000-2010, the absolute numbers of slum dwellers increased from 776.7 million to 827.6 million….” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

BBC adds that “… ‘Cities are growing faster than the slum improvement rate,’ warned Gora Mboup, co-author of the report, State of the World Cities 2010/11: Bridging the Urban Divide.  ‘Short of drastic action, the world slum population will probably grow by six million each year, or another 61 million people, to hit a total of 889 million by 2020.’…” [BBC News]

In related news, The Vancouver Sun notes that “…people have a ‘right’ to a full range of government-delivered social services, State of the World Cities said…. ‘This report highlights the unprecedented challenges which urbanization throws at the world's cities today – particularly in the South – and the attendant urban divide which we all have to address collectively to stem the multiple deprivations that follow from unequal growth," UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka added…. The report says few countries have so far embraced the ‘right-to-the-city’ concept, but encourages its spread….” [The Vancouver Sun]

Paris Club Agrees To Cancel Afghanistan Debt

“The Paris Club has agreed to cancel all of the debt owed to it by Afghanistan, in a deal worth $1.026 billion, the group of sovereign creditors said in a statement on Wednesday…. The participants were Germany, Russia and the US….” [Reuters/Factiva]

AFP adds that “…the informal group of industrialized nations said in a statement it was erasing $585 million of debt on a bilateral and voluntary basis after the Afghan government vowed to allocate the freed resources to combat poverty.

The Paris Club said it also decided to cancel an additional $441 million representing the club's share of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank initiative that provides low interest loans to the world's poorest countries….” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

AP writes that “…Deputy US Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said Wednesday that the decision to cancel the debt was a recognition of the progress Afghanistan had made in strengthening its economy. ‘Lifting the debt burden inherited by the Afghan government marks a crucial step on Afghanistan's road to economic sustainability,’ Wolin said in a statement….” [Associated Press/Factiva]

IMF Approves $790 Million Loan For El Salvador

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday approved a new $790 million stand-by loan agreement for El Salvador to speed up the recovery from the global financial crisis by bolstering investor confidence. The IMF said El Salvador did not intend to use the money and would treat the loan as ‘precautionary.’…” [Reuters/Factiva]

ANSA adds that “…in a statement the Office of the President of El Salvador explained that the agreement is valid for 36 months…. The government said the stand-by arrangement from the IMF aims to maintain the confidence of investors and to support the authorities with the country's macroeconomic stability….” [ANSA (Italy)/Factiva]

EFE reports that “…as part of the agreement, the government pledged to reform energy and water subsidies, improve tax administration and pass two laws to strengthen the financial system. IMF Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal said it is ‘critical’ that Congress adopt the Law on Supervision and Regulation of the Financial System. The other law in question is the Law on Investment Funds, designed to regulate the investment sector….” [EFE/Factiva]

IMF Upbeat On India's Outlook For Growth

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest Article IV consultation paper issued Wednesday, said India's economy is recovering well, with conditions now in place for a gradual tightening of monetary policy. It also indicated there is room for the rupee to rise without compromising a recovery….” [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

PTI adds that “…the IMF expects the Indian economy to grow by 8 percent during 2010-11, though high inflation and rising fiscal deficit would continue to remain areas of concern.... The Fund forecasts a moderately lower growth rate for the 2011-12 fiscal at 7.7 percent….

Wholesale price inflation was at 9.89 percent in February, much higher than the Reserve Bank's March-end projection of 8.5 percent…. Other risks include asset price bubble and the possibility of a sudden stoppage of foreign capital inflows caused by turmoil in global financial markets….” [Press Trust of India]

INTERVIEW: Food Imports To Rise In LDCs As Russia, Brazil Grow

In an interview with Reuters, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Trade and Markets Division Director Alexander Sarris said, “The world's poorest nations are likely to become increasingly dependent on food imports, while global exports become more concentrated in a few countries…. ‘In many of these (Least Developed Countries) not only are they becoming more import dependent but they are becoming less able to afford the imports,’ Sarris said….

Supplies at the same time will become more focused in countries such as Russia and Brazil, which have unused fertile land, Sarris added. ‘Russia has huge potential. Russia can be the bread basket of Europe and possibly the world,’ Sarris said…. However, that agriculture does offer a much-needed opportunity to generate growth in developing nations…. Sarris noted the use of agricultural inputs in parts of Africa has been declining with financing of purchases a major problem due partly to credit constraints….

Sarris saw potential for African and Asian countries to provide feedstocks for biofuels or to generate electricity…. However, such expansion could require partnerships between the governments of the respective countries in Africa and Europe and development aid to build the necessary infrastructure, he said….” [Reuters/Factiva]

Also in This Edition, Briefly Noted

Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy may expand 3.8 percent this year compared with 1.1 percent last year because the acute phase of the global economic crisis has ended, World Bank Development Prospects Group Manager Andrew Burns said.  [Bloomberg]

Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the entire cabinet Wednesday. [Financial Times]

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is working to ensure that some 145,000 children affected by conflict in the Central African Republic have literature, mathematics and science books, the UN announced Wednesday. [Xinhua/Factiva]

Conditions are not yet right and it could take years for refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo to return home from the neighboring Republic of Congo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The International Monetary Fund is coming to the aid of struggling Antigua and Barbuda with a $124 million loan over three years, Antiguan Finance Minister Harold Lovell announced. [Associated Press/Factiva]

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Executive Director Jacques Diouf said Wednesday that Haiti needs at least $800 million to revive its agriculture sector. [Xinhua/Factiva]

The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) on Wednesday donated $15 million to Honduras for poverty reduction and social development projects. [Xinhua/Factiva]

Ecuador has suspended negotiations with the Export-Import Bank of China for the financing of a $2 billion hydroelectric plant, Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said Wednesday. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

A mega-dam in Laos, the Nam Theun 2 dam, criticized by environmental groups and financed in part by the World Bank, has begun to generate electricity for sale to Thailand, its operators said Wednesday. [Associated Press/Factiva]

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with coffee trader Atlantic Commodities Vietnam Ltd. to establish the first training center for Vietnamese coffee farmers. [Asia Pulse (Australia)/Factiva]

Taiwan said on Wednesday it would use countries in Africa to get its first carbon credits for international trade, a move seen as part of the island's long-term bid to participate in the UN. [Reuters/Factiva]

Egypt is likely to launch a second tender round just before the end of this year to choose from 10 firms short-listed to build its first private wind farm, World Bank Energy Specialist Mohab Hallouda said on Tuesday. [Daily News Egypt/Factiva]

Stanley Fischer on Wednesday accepted a second term as governor of the Israeli central bank, in a move that ended months of speculation and was applauded by political leaders and market participants alike. [Financial Times/Factiva]