AFP The European Central Bank (ECB) may be forced to bolster its monetary stimulus programmes if governments fail to act to boost their economies, board member Benoit Coeure said on Tuesday. “If there is not much taking place on the structural reform front, if there’s not much taking place on the fiscal policy front… then the ECB will do ...

  AFP World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim will seek a second term of office, the global development lender said as it announced the start of a selection process for the presidency. Kim’s bid to remain as president comes in the face a rare public rebuke from the Bank’s rank-and-file, who earlier this month declared that the institution faced a ...

  Essen / DPA When the victors of World War II announced the creation of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NTW) – by merging two former Prussian states – in 1946 in London, most of its inhabitants were going hungry. And as the bitter winter of 1946-47 got underway they began to freeze too. But the state, which ...