The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
There have been many successes and failures in economic and social development of India in the last 75 years. The recent covid-19 pandemic had also an adverse impact on growth, employment, health and education etc. In this paper, issues and policies are discussed beyond India@75 for achieving growth, inclusion and …
The Kenya Economic Update (KEU) is a World Bank report series produced twice a year that assesses recent economic and social developments and prospects in Kenya, and places these in a longer-term and global context. Through special topics, the KEU also examines selected policy issues and medium-term development challenges in …
After several months of low COVID-19 case numbers, Malawi is facing a fourth wave. While an increasing share of the global population is protected by vaccines, only about 6.5 percent of the population is vaccinated in Malawi, increasing the country’s vulnerability to the virus. The Government response to the third …
South Asia has experienced significant progress in improving human and physical capital over the past few decades. Within the region, India has become a global economic powerhouse with enormous development potential ahead. To foster human and economic development, India has shown a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) …
The Nigeria Development Update (NDU) is a World Bank report series produced twice a year around Spring and Fall. The NDU assesses recent economic and social developments and prospects in Nigeria, and places these in a longer-term and global context. It also provides an in-depth examination of selected economic and …
The African Development Bank played a critical role in supporting millions of people across the continent, affected by the impact of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020. This is according to its latest Annual Development Effectiveness Review released. The pandemic caused fiscal deficits to double and indebtedness to rise sharply, reducing …
Central African governments introduced several socioeconomic measures after COVID-19 first surfaced. CEMAC countries and the Democratic Republic of Congo enacted stimulus measures equivalent to several percentage points of GDP, combining tax relief and liquidity injections with spending for public health measures and social sectors. These have varied by country depending …
COVID-19 is one of multiple crises to have hit the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the decade following the Arab Spring. War, oil price declines, economic slowdowns and now a pandemic are tearing at the social fabric of a region characterized by high rates of unemployment, high …
This paper estimates the impact of digital infrastructure on economic growth and its sources. The analysis uses system generalized method of moments and finds evidence of a causal impact from the digital infrastructure variables to economic growth, its sources, income inequality, and poverty. The findings show that mobile connections have …
Niger earns its foreign exchange mainly from uranium and gold, which has limited domestic economic linkages. Distant second, livestock export also provide important revenue to the country. Overall, most of the labor force is employed in a low productivity and shock prone rainfed agricultural sector. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic growth …
This poverty assessment aims to strengthen the analytical foundation for poverty-reduction policies and interventions in Mali. In recent years, important gains have been made across multiple dimensions of household welfare, but poverty in Mali remains widespread and extreme. The COVID-19 induced crisis has reversed much of the progress in poverty …
Assuming the COVID-19 pandemic ends or that successful vaccination programs are implemented, Southern Africa is projected to grow 3.2 percent in 2021 and 2.4 percent in 2022. But this recovery will be inadequate given the region’s estimated 6.3 percent contraction in 2020. Slow growth in South Africa—the region’s largest economy—has …
Real gross domestic product growth in North Africa was largely negative in 2020, at -1.1% with a -5.1 percentage point drop over 2019, the African Development Bank’s 2021 edition of the North Africa Economic Outlook reports. Released on November 3, the report finds that in 2020, North African economies experienced …
The informal economy in Africa is large and diverse, and it is the main source of employment in the region. It is projected to grow and create more jobs. The informal economy is well established in the region, but it also faces a host of development challenges. It is characterized …
This report reviews the economic performance of the 13 countries under the African Development Bank’s East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. East Africa is the only region in Africa that avoided a recession …
This report complements the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2021, providing more detail on West Africa’s economic situation and growth prospects in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also analyzes public debt in West African countries and explores financing options. Finally, the report provides recommendations for facilitating sovereign …
It is now clear that a narrow focus on the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient to achieve humanity’s aspirations for sustainable prosperity. Wellfunctioning ecosystems and educated populations are requisites for sustainable wellbeing. These and other too-often-neglected ingredients of national wealth must be addressed if the development path …
This paper examines the extent to which countries have succeeded in decoupling transport emissions from economic growth, and how changes in emissions intensity, economic growth, and population growth have contributed to changes in transportation-related emissions. The paper employs a modified version of the Tapio decoupling model, and demonstrates that over …
This report examines the region’s economic prospects in 2021, forecasting that the recovery will be both tenuous and uneven as per capita GDP level stays below pre-pandemic levels. COVID-19 was a stress-test for the region’s public health systems, which were already overwhelmed even before the pandemic. Indeed, a decade of …
In 2021, Sub-Saharan Africa emerged from the recession, but its recovery is still timid and fragile. The region is projected to grow at a rate of 3.3 percent—a weaker pace of recovery than that of advanced and emerging market economies. In 2022–23, the region is projected to grow at rates …
