Eurobarometer Survey on Autonomous Systems  Drones delivering packages, driverless cars, robots vacuuming your house: these high tech devices already exist. The question is whether all members of society are ready to live alongside them and their artificial intelligence. A recent Eurobarometer Survey on “Autonomous Systems” took a sampling of Europeans’ opinions on how they feel about these new technological developments…from a consumer’s perspective. A majority of respondents agreed that civil drones are an efficient way of transporting and delivering goods, but two-thirds...

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The IMF today published for the first time the World Revenue Longitudinal Dataset (WoRLD), which provides data on tax and non-tax revenues for 186 countries over the period 1990-2013. The database includes broad country coverage and time periods, and it is the result of combining in a consistent manner data from two other IMF publications -- the IMF Government Finance Statistics and World Economic Outlook (WEO)-- and drawing on the OECD’s Revenue Statistics and Revenue Statistics in Latin America...

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The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Second Post-Program Monitoring with Portugal,1 and endorsed the staff appraisal without a meeting on a lapse-of-time basis.2 Portugal’s economic recovery remains on track in 2015, boosted by rising exports and consumption, together with a recent upturn in investment. Real GDP expanded by 1.5 percent (year-on-year) in the first quarter, and is projected to increase 1.6 percent for the full year. Fiscal adjustment has slowed, meanwhile, with a structural loosening likely this...

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The European Commission has today adopted new rules that make it mandatory for certain over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate derivative contracts to be cleared through central counterparties. Mandatory central clearing is a vital part of the response to the financial crisis; it follows commitments made by world leaders at the G-20 Pittsburgh Summit in 2009, to improve transparency and mitigate risks. Jonathan Hill, EU Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, said: "Today we take a significant step...

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On 4 August 2015, the EU Council approved a regulation amending the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) in order to protect non-euro area member states from any risk arising from financial assistance given to a euro area country. This principle was endorsed on 17 July 2015 by a joint statement of the Commission and the Council. It was agreed along with a decision to grant €7.16bn in short term financial assistance to Greece under the EFSM. Specifically, the regulation ensures that...

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