World Bank discusses investing in Africa with China Investment Fund

BEIJING -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick said he is talking to Chinese government officials about cooperating on investments in Africa, which he said could help boost the continent's economic growth.

Mr. Zoellick told reporters Wednesday during a visit to the Chinese capital that China Investment Corp., the nation's sovereign-wealth fund, has expressed interest in investing in the World Bank's recently launched asset management company, which invests private-sector funds into places like sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick
On Wed, stated he will press Group of 20
for more aid to developing countries [WSJ]

"CIC expressed interest in this as a commercial investment vehicle, but obviously there is no decision yet on their part," Mr. Zoellick said. Other sovereign-wealth funds and pension funds are also interested in the new investment vehicle, he said, which manages some $4 billion in funds.

Click here to read J.R. Wu and Andrew Batson's complete article at the WSJ

Does anyone really care what the IMF thinks?

Apr 22 (Retuers) - For the first time since the end of World War II, the International Monetary Fund is projecting that the world economy has fallen into a severe recession.

IMF statistics are widely used when proving a point in journalism, academic research or any other type of report. There are a handful of sources to turn when you need a legitimate source and the IMF's wonderful website is one of them.

It's full of statistics, economic research, news and pages dedicated to just explaining to you what the heck the IMF does... sounds like a exhilarating experience no?

There is already a raging debate among academics, economists and politicians if the good produced by the IMF outweighs the bad.

You don't see IMF economists, moving markets with their speeches on major news networks.

This is because they don't and they can't. When it comes down to it the IMF has true little power to influence momentum in markets. Financial markets don't care about what the chief economist at the IMF thinks or says because anyone in the business probably has a research department in their company that has already come to the same conclusion. Heck, I could have Googled what these IMF guys said in this Reuters video.