WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on Friday defended her government’s record on good governance and transparency, following an independent audit that cast doubt on her anti-corruption efforts.

She said a recent audit of resource contracts by accounting firm Moore Stephens contracts had been commissioned to fix, and not hide, problems in the West African country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States blacklisted two Dubai-based trading companies on Wednesday, accusing them of helping Iran evade financial sanctions and effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial system.

The move against Al Hilal Exchange and Al Fida International General Trading is the latest in a series of sanctions Washington has imposed to pressure Tehran to curb its atomic program, which the United States suspects aims to develop weapons. Iran says the program is for civilian purposes.

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) – African finance ministers
told their rich nation counterparts at weekend meetings of the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank to work harder and
faster to kick-start their economies to avoid a prolonged slump
that could undermine strong growth in the developing world.

“We are concerned,” Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala said at the meetings of global finance leaders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Global finance officials on Saturday endorsed a new World Bank goal to end extreme global poverty by 2030 and emphasized that its focus should be on ensuring that the poorest benefit from strong growth and rising prosperity in developing nations.

“For the first time in history we have committed to setting a target to end poverty,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said on Saturday following a meeting of the World Bank’s Development Committee. “We are no longer dreaming of a world free of poverty; we have set an expiration date for extreme poverty,” he added.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Global finance officials on Saturday said monetary policy alone was not enough to restore confidence in the shaky global economy as they urged countries to take other steps to reinvigorate growth and create jobs.

“We need to act decisively to nurture a sustainable recovery and restore the resilience of the global economy,” the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee said at the conclusion of the world lender’s spring meeting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund and Egyptian finance officials are working to conclude talks “as quickly as feasible” on a proposed $4.8 billion loan deal to ease the country’s deepening economic crisis, a senior IMF official said on Friday.

“I don’t have a date for when those discussions will be completed precisely, but Egyptian authorities and our own team are working diligently to try to bring that set of discussions to a conclusion as quickly as feasible,” IMF Director for the Middle East and North Africa Masood Ahmed told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Global finance leaders will do a stocktaking of IMF voting power changes when they meet in Washington this week amid concerns that a key IMF reform package is being held up in the U.S. Congress, a tough sell in a tight budget year.

Without mentioning the United States, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Wednesday repeated a call to member countries to approve the 2010 package, which would boost the voting power of emerging countries like China and India that have long called for more say in the IMF to reflect their growing economic might.

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Global policymakers will discuss the impact of unprecedented monetary policy easing at meetings in Washington this week along with the softly-softly approach central banks will need to eventually wean the world off super-cheap funds.

The Bank of Japan has joined other major central banks in aggressive policy stimulus, pledging to inject $1.4 trillion over the next two years and fanning tensions over currency wars.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday shaved projections for global economic growth for this year and next to take into account sharp government spending cuts in the United States and the latest struggles of recession-stricken Europe.

While it said economic prospects had improved in recent months with a fading of financial risks, it warned Europe against relaxing efforts to combat its debt crisis given the messy bailout in Cyprus and political stalemate in Italy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank’s political risk guarantee agency hopes that with a new insurance facility it can help attract more companies into conflict-hit states early on as the country rebuilds and tries to get people back to work, a senior official said on Monday.

Michel Wormser, chief operating officer for the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), said the donor-funded Conflict-Affected and Fragile Economies Facility will enable the agency to provide cover for projects it would normally regard as too risky in countries emerging from war or violence.