The World Bank and Switzerland have teamed up to help middle-income countries cope with external fiscal shocks.
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Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the World Bank have co-launched a $9 million (SFr8.2 million) programme to support countries in their shock management efforts.
The launch was announced during the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, DC, on Monday.
In a statement, Seco said events such as natural disasters and the global banking crisis “demonstrate that these risks often represent a large financial burden for government budgets with significant consequences for longer term development prospects”.
The programme, which will be implemented over a period of five years starting this year, will concentrate on two major sources of fiscal risk: public debts and natural disasters.
It focuses on the following countries: Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Serbia, South Africa, Peru and Vietnam.
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