Experimentation with almost 70 market participants highlights digital euro’s potential to foster innovation and financial inclusionECB to launch second round of experimentation through platform next year to maximise innovation potentialConditional payments identified as possible key driver of innovation for consumers and businessesA digital euro could fos...
1. The Thirteenth East Asia Summit (EAS) Economic Ministers’ Meeting was held on 25 September 2025 in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. The Meeting was chaired by H.E. Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry of Malaysia. The Meeting also welcomed H.E. Filipus Nino Pereira, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Democratic Republi...
1. ASEAN alongside Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea gathered in Kuala Lumpur on 25 September 2025 for the Fourth RCEP Ministers’ Meeting. The Meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri, Vice Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia and H.E. Yoji Muto, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of ...
OverviewAt its meeting on 11 September 2025, the Governing Council decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. Inflation is currently at around the 2% medium-term target and the Governing Council’s assessment of the inflation outlook is broadly unchanged.The September 2025 ECB staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area present a pic...
UNIDO Launches the 2025 SDG 9 Progress ReportThe United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), as custodian agency for six industry-related indicators of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9, has released the 2025 Edition of the SDG 9 Progress Report. This publication offers a comprehensive statistical snapshot of global industrial devel...
In 2025, global maritime trade continues to navigate an environment marked by volatility, rerouted flows and uncertainty. Persistent geopolitical tensions and trade policy changes have altered shipping patterns, with many routes redirected away from traditional chokepoints.While containerized trade is expanding, especially along extraregional cor...
1. The Fifty-Seventh ASEAN Economic Ministers’ (AEM) Meeting was held on 23 September 2025, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Meeting, which was chaired by Malaysia under the theme of “Inclusivity and Sustainability,” was preceded by a preparatory meeting of the ASEAN Senior Economic Officials (SEOM) and joint meetings with the 39th ASEAN Fr...
On the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA-80), global leaders from the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors came together with one clear message: in a world of record-high humanitarian needs and mounting crises, only stronger multilateral action through the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus can deliver lasti...
SummaryCentral banks support markets or institutions because doing so will help them meet their mandate with regard to the maintenance of price and financial stability. During crises, central banks expand the breadth of their operations, lengthen the duration of lending, and expand the range of counterparties they deal with and the pool of eligible collate...
The Joint MDB Water Security Financing Report 2024 marks a milestone in collective action by ten Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to strengthen global water security. Building on commitments made at COP28 and the One Water Summit, the report sets a baseline for tracking investments and collaboration across the water sector. In 2024 alone, MD...
