Growth in Asia and the Pacific outperformed expectations in late 2023, reaching 5.0 percent for the year. Inflation has continued to decline, albeit at varying speeds: some economies are still seeing sustained price pressures, while others are facing deflationary risks.In 2024, growth is projected to slow modestly to 4.5 percent. …
This report highlights how the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis has impacted Nigeria’s economy. In 2020, Nigeria’s economy is expected to experience its deepest recession since the 1980s due to the COVID-19-related disruptions, notably lower oil prices and remittances, enhanced risk aversion in global capital markets, and mobility restrictions. In the baseline …
Kenya’s economy has been hit hard by COVID-19, severely affecting incomes and jobs. The economy has been exposed through the dampening effects on domestic activity of the containment measures and behavioral responses, and through trade and travel disruption (affecting key foreign currency earners such as tourism and cut flowers). Real …
The paper examines the impact of sectoral transformation in agriculture on sustainable development in North and Central Asia. It discusses trends and developments of agriculture and structural transformation, as well as its effects on sustainable development in the subregion. Since the breakdown of Soviet-Union, the subregion underwent economic and political …
This paper has been written for the 2020 ECAMA Lakeshore Conference. It extends and updates the initial results of modeling undertaken by IFPRI to assess the short-run impacts of COVID-19 control measures on the Malawian economy. Also consider the short-run effects of external shocks associated with disruptions in trade and …
Air pollution presents an increasingly apparent challenge to health and development across the globe. Exposure to PM2.5 is a major health risk and worldwide, an estimated 4.13-5.39 million people died prematurely in 2017 from exposure to PM2.5 pollution. The health impacts of pollution also represent a heavy cost to the …
Countries in Asia and the Pacific need to extend social protection coverage for all. Doing so would help them build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic. It would also help them tackle a range of compounding challenges arising from population ageing, migration, urbanization, technological advancements, disasters and climate change. Yet, …
Southeast Asia made considerable progress in building and strengthening its agricultural R&D; capacity during 2000–2017. All of the region’s countries reported higher numbers of agricultural researchers, improvements in their average qualification levels, and higher shares of women participating in agricultural R&D.; In contrast, regional agricultural research spending remained stagnant, despite …
The economy of the Central African Republic (CAR) grew at a slower pace in 2019 compared to 2018. Still, it grew at 3.1 percent, year-onyear, in 2019, above the average of regional peers (1.6 percent) and countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) (2.7 percent). Despite improvements in security …
This report assesses the economic impacts of water scarcity for six Middle Eastern countries and examines how water-use efficiency improvements and trade can mitigate these impacts. In doing so, it provides water planners and managers key arguments to guide water policies choices and priorities in the region.
The world was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even harder both to achieve the Goals and to monitor progress where it is being made, according to a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of …
As the pandemic persists, developing Asia is projected to contract by 0.7% in 2020—the first regional GDP contraction since the early 1960s. Developing Asia excluding the newly industrialized economies will also contract by 0.5%. Growth is forecast to rebound to 6.8% in 2021, but this will still leave GDP next …
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to disrupt the livelihoods of thousands of vulnerable families in Zambia. This has the potential to reinforce poverty and deepen food and nutrition insecurity. Furthermore, economic disruptions that have slowed down investments, resulted in high unemployment and declined remittances. Resultant adverse effects on some macroeconomic fundamentals, …
The fact that a carbon tax is an environmentally and economically efficient instrument for reducing emissions is often highlighted, but the equity story is also of importance: who bears the burden of the tax? This paper addresses the question of the distributional burden of a carbon tax. The authors show …
This report assesses the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated recovery measures on emissions out to 2030 and global emission pathways towards meeting the Paris climate goals (‘what-if’ scenarios). Furthermore, the study reviews the most recent insights published in the literature on post-COVID emissions projections and green recovery trajectories, …
This study examines climate change impact on economic growth in the Indian context. Using state and district level data on climate variables and growth rate of per capita real GDP, the present study evaluates the short- as well as medium-run effects of climate change on growth. The results based on …
Amidst the economic slowdown triggered by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India there have been many demands for the government to announce a large fiscal stimulus to support the economy. Economic growth and tax revenues remain uncertain in 2020-21 making it challenging for the government to finance any …
Tourism provides livelihoods for millions of people and allows billions more to appreciate their own and different cultures, as well as the natural world. For some countries, it can represent over 20 per cent of their GDP and, overall, it is the third largest export sector of the global economy. …
The COVID19 pandemic has caused a sharp decline in global trade, lower commodity prices, and tighter external financing conditions. Implications for current account balances and currencies vary widely across countries. In 2019 the global current account balance (the absolute sum of all surpluses and deficits) declined by 0.2 percentage point …
The recent COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore a high fatality rate amongst those with comorbidities of diabetes and hypertension that is often associated with obesity, while it also exposes the vulnerabilities among the less nourished population due to the infection and economic lockdown. An increasing number of developing countries …
The pandemic of COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis severely affecting the well-being of people all around the globe and in Asia and the Pacific as well. The actual economic impact of the pandemic on the Asia- Pacific region has yet to be fully revealed, but ESCAP forecasts significant slowing …
