“There is an estimate within the World Food Programme that … there will be 265 million starving people within a year, so of course this is also a call to the international community not to underfund the World Food Programme.”

WFP runs a logistics service that has dispatched medical cargoes to over 120 countries throughout the pandemic to help governments and health partners fighting COVID-19.

It also has provided passenger services to ferry humanitarian and health workers where commercial flights were unavailable.

Central banks began looking closely at digital currencies after Facebook last year announced its yet-to-be-launched digital token Libra that would be backed by a mixture of major currencies and government debt. The body behind Libra has since tweaked plans and now hopes to launch several “stablecoins” backed by individual currencies.Central banks need to keep up to avoid the private sector plugging payments gaps in unsuitable ways,Bank of England (BoE) Deputy Governor and chair of a BIS committee on payments Jon Cunliffe said.