Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Half of the world’s 75 poorest countries are experiencing a widening income gap with the wealthiest economies for the first time this century in a historical reversal of development, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.The differential between per capita income growth in the poorest countries and the richest has widened over the past five years, according to the report.”For the first time, we see there is no convergence. They’re getting poorer,” Ayhan Kose, deputy chief economist for the World Bank and one of the report’s authors, told Reuters.”We see a very serious structural regression, a reversal in the world … that’s why we are ringing the alarm bells here,” he said. The report said the 75 countries eligible for grants and zero-interest loans from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) risk a lost decade of development without ambitious policy shifts and significant international aid.Kose said growth in many IDA countries had already begun to taper off in these countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it would be just 3.4% in 2020-2024, the weakest half-decade of growth since the early 1990s. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, climate change, increases in violence and conflict also weighed heavily on their prospects.More than half of all IDA countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa; 14 are in East Asia and eight are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thirty-one have per capita incomes of less than $1,315 a year. They include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Haiti.One in three IDA countries is poorer now than on the eve of the pandemic. IDA countries account for 92% of the world’s people who lack access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Half of the countries are in debt distress, meaning they are unable to service debt or are at high risk of not being able to.And despite their young populations – a demographic boon at a time when populations were aging nearly everywhere else, rich natural resources and abundant solar-energy potential, private and government creditors had been backing away from them.U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Jay Shambaugh raised concerns about the worsening situation last week, warning China and other emerging official creditors against free-riding by curtailing loans to low-income countries just as the IMF or multilateral development banks were pouring funds in.Almost 40 countries saw external public debt outflows in 2022, and the flows likely worsened in 2023, he said.Kose said ambitious policies were needed to accelerate investment, including domestic efforts to strengthen fiscal, monetary and financial policies, and structural reforms to improve education and increase domestic revenues.Significant financial support from the global community was also essential to make progress and lower the risk of protracted stagnation, Kose said, noting that the World Bank hoped to drum up a robust replenishment of IDA funds by December.Stronger international coordination on climate change, debt restructurings and measures supporting cross-border trade would also be crucial, it said.Indermit Gill, World Bank chief economist, noted that China, India and South Korea – now major economic powerhouses – had once been among the world’s poorest countries, but were able to tackle extreme poverty and raise living standards.”The world cannot afford to turn its back on IDA countries,” he said. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you are selling a home in the U.S., you may wonder when to put it on the market and get the best price.The answer? The prime moment is now.Specifically, the week of April 14-20 is optimal to sell a home nationwide, according to a new report from Realtor.com. By crunching a variety of factors including past price patterns along with the amount of inventory and buyer activity, researchers say this early spring sweet spot is the ideal time to strike.“The best week is here, and conditions will remain favorable for sellers from now into the summer,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.Those positive forces include above-average prices in mid-April, which are 1% higher than a typical week, and 10.4% higher than the start of the year. Given national median prices, that works out to homes priced at $7,400 higher than an average week and $34,000 more compared to the beginning of 2024.Market demand is also high, with mid-April listings getting 22.8% more views than usual. This prime week also boasts a 17% faster selling pace.There are also almost one-quarter fewer price reductions than normal in mid-April, indicating that sellers typically have the upper hand at this time of year.Of course, high interest rates make the real estate landscape more complex. Stubborn inflation numbers mean that the Federal Reserve held off on rate cuts, which means mortgage rates will stay elevated for the time being.Thirty-year fixed mortgages are currently averaging around 7%, according to financial information site Bankrate.com. That affects affordability and could rain on everyone’s parade.If your house is ready to hit the market, be sure to hustle. Otherwise, getting a home prepped for sale could take some time – fixing it up, hiring the right agent or taking great pictures to get more eyeballs on Zillow (NASDAQ:ZG).Here are a few tips for sellers trying to get the best price.SOONER IS BETTERFor sellers at least, the smart move is to get the jump on the spring season. As we get into May and June, “we will see more and more listings hit the market, and there will be more competition,” advises Hale. “There is a large buyer pool earlier in the year, but those numbers will drop off as they find places to buy.”In fact, for buyers, the savvier approach is to wait until fall, if you can, Hale says. By then, market dynamics will have shifted in buyers’ favor – and, hopefully, mortgage rates will have started to finally come back down to Earth.Bankrate.com chief financial analyst Greg McBride predicts mortgage rates will be in the region of 6.25-6.4% by the end of 2024.DO NOT EXPECT BIG CHANGES IN FEES – YETYou may have heard about the recent lawsuit settlement with the National Association of Realtors, which should upend the world of traditional 6% agent fees. Since that amount typically comes out of the seller’s end, it is almost like a ‘tax’ on any home sale.This settlement will presumably create more competition among agents and put downward pressure on that 6% figure. However, new rules don’t take effect until July.“We are not going to see any dramatic changes yet,” says Tomasz Piskorski, a finance professor at Columbia Business School who studies the housing market. “It will be more of a slow-motion decline over time in real estate agent fees.”One tip from Piskorski: Sellers in hot markets should try to negotiate their way out of covering buyer’s agent fees, which could at least save them around 3% on the deal.THINK LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCALWhile April 14-20 is the ideal selling week using ‘national’ figures, that is just a composite figure. In reality, all real estate is local, which means should dig into the conditions of your own market.In New York City and Los Angeles, for instance, the best time to list actually started in late March. But in other cities like Memphis and Indianapolis, the ideal period does not kick off until May. To research your own area, check out the Realtor.com report here.Generally speaking, sellers should be encouraged by prices right now. The median sales price for existing homes in February was $384,500, according to the National Association of Realtors, up 5.7% year-over-year.The flip side of that, of course, is a rough moment for buyers. “Prices continue to be high, and mortgage rates are still at a high point,” says Hale. “So finding a home that meets your needs, and falls within your budget, is a real challenge right now.” More

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Internal Revenue Service started tax filing deadline day on Monday by announcing that it had exceeded its goals for speeding assistance to taxpayers and cutting phone hold times to three minutes, and underscoring the need for Congress to maintain adequate funding for the tax agency. THE TAKE: The IRS is completing its second tax return filing season with increased funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which initially provided $80 billion in funding over 10 years to modernize the agency, improve taxpayer services and boost enforcement. That has since been reduced to $60 billion by Republicans in Congress, and lawmakers continue to argue over the IRS’ separate annual operating budget.The IRS has poured its initial resources into improving taxpayer services, digitizing filing capabilities and launching a pilot free-filing system. BY THE NUMBERS: The IRS said it has cut its average call wait time on its main taxpayer helpline to three minutes, down from four minutes last year and 28 minutes in 2022, before it received the additional funding.This was achieved despite answering nearly one million more calls than in 2023. The IRS said it provided help to 88% of callers, beating its 85% goal. A new call-back feature similar to those widely offered by airlines, banks and retailers also saved 1.4 million hours of hold time, IRS said.IRS has hired more than 5,000 staff to assist taxpayers on the phone and at in-person service centers and to handle digitization of paper filings. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters this was the “right-size workforce” for taxpayer services, but the agency needs to keep hiring to keep up with attrition.Even with the supplemental funding, Werfel said the IRS does not have adequate resources to sustain hiring for taxpayer services and auditing of complex business partnerships while modernizing its systems, so it will need to see annual operating budget increases in future years. KEY QUOTE: “These accomplishments show that the IRS’ strong performance last filing season was not a fluke,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. “It’s showing that when (the IRS) has the resources it needs, it will provide taxpayers the service they deserve,” Yellen said, adding that she would work with Congress “to ensure that IRS has the resources to sustain this momentum.” More

WARSAW (Reuters) – With a little more than two years left to spend European Union recovery money, Poland is focusing firmly on making the most of the smaller grants leg of the programme, while treating cheap loans as a fallback component, a senior official told Reuters.After years of haggling with the previous nationalist government in Warsaw over democratic norms, in February the European Commission released 137 billion euros of funds to modernise central Europe’s biggest economy, which narrowly avoided an inflation-driven downturn in 2023.The funds include nearly 60 billion euros designed to help EU countries bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and energy transition, consisting of 25.3 billion euros in grants and 34.5 billion euros in cheap loans. Poland is expected to receive 6 billion euros from recovery funds on Monday.While Warsaw was locked in a rule-of-law debate with Brussels, fellow EU members forged ahead with required reforms and investments, but even some countries accessing the funds from the start have fallen behind in commissioning projects.Late last month, the Commission warned Romania, which has received by far the largest amount of the COVID-19 recovery funds in central Europe so far, that it was slipping on its reform agenda, putting billions of funding at risk.Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU government, which took power in December, is revising Poland’s national reconstruction plan listing projects and reforms, which it aims to submit to Brussels for approval this month.”It is an absolute priority to use the grant part. It’s not free money, but if there’s anything close to free money, this is it,” Jan Szyszko, Deputy Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, said in an interview.LOOKING AT LAW CHANGE TO AVOID ZLOTY CONVERSIONWhile Warsaw was aiming to use the grant part “in full or nearly in full”, Szyszko said the substantially bigger loan part would only be tapped where beneficial for Poland’s development.”We’re not losing anything as such if we don’t use an investment from the loan part, just as we lose if we do not use the grant part,” he said, adding that Poland would not forego the loans envelope altogether.Szyszko pointed to the Polish electric vehicle project, a former darling of the previous government and commonly known as “Izera”, which until now was listed in the grant part, as one that would be shifted to the loan pool in the upcoming revision to bypass the need to produce a road-ready car by August 2026.To speed up investments, the Polish government is also working on changing existing law to skip having to convert all incoming euro-denominated funds into Polish zlotys, with a decision due either this month or next.”We are in talks, both with the finance ministry and within the government, to streamline this process as much as possible,” Szyszko said.The Polish zloty has far outpaced regional peers this year, gaining almost 2% and trading near a more than four-year-high, supported by steady interest rates and the expected inflow of billions of euros from Brussels.However, some economists have warned that investor optimism about the renewed money flows may be overdone, with next year’s Polish presidential election looming large over the prospects of implementing the required reforms to keep the funds flowing.ING analysts said the National Bank of Poland registered just 300 million euros of EU fund disbursements to beneficiaries in February, worth one-fifth of a percent of Poland’s total allotment from various EU envelopes over the coming years. More