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 …
Ghana’s economy rebounded from the COVID-19 slowdown, growing by 5.4 percent in 2021, but the recovery is already facing global headwinds. Despite attempts by the government to roll back fiscal support, consolidation was held back by budget rigidities, debt service obligations, and revenue mobilization challenges, keeping the fiscal deficit one …
India’s financial sector has faced many challenges in recent decades, with a large, negative, and persistent credit to GDP gap since 2012. Examine how cyclical financial conditions affect GDP growth using a growth-at-risk (GaR) approach and analyze the link between bank balance sheets, credit growth, and long-term growth using bank-level …
This latest edition of the NDU says that inflation in Nigeria, already one of the highest in the world before the war in Ukraine, is likely to increase further due to the rise in global fuel and food prices caused by the war. And that is likely to push an …
Ghana has enjoyed two decades of steady growth, but the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia crisis could dent economic prospects, according to an African Development Bank report. The report, titled ‘Transforming Ghana,’ reviews the country’s development over the past ten years (2012–2021) and evaluates the African Development …
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global economic recession. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to every part of the world, governments released policies to restrict people`s socio-economic activities to limit the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic and related measures have great impact to consumption, investment, manufacture, trade among socioeconomic activities …
Compounding the damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has magnified the slowdown in the global economy, which is entering what could become a protracted period of feeble growth and elevated inflation, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. This raises the risk of …
The Macro Poverty Outlook (MPO) analyzes macroeconomic and poverty developments in 47 developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report is released twice annually for the Spring and Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The MPO consists of individual country notes that provide an overview …
The 8th edition of the Mozambique Economic Update (MEU): Getting Agricultural Support Right focuses its analysis on the potential offered by agriculture to promote a sustainable and more inclusive recovery, and outlines reform options to realign agricultural support policies to achieve competitiveness, climate resilience and food security objectives. In its …
Investment is an important driver of economic growth with important implications for debt sustainability. Investment efficiency gaps adversely impact debt sustainability in Africa. The current heightened fiscal vulnerabilities can be attributed to external factors including volatile commodity prices particularly for commodity-exporting countries and health challenges like COVID-19 pandemic that weakened …
Kenya managed to contain the health and economic impacts of multiple Coronavirus (COVID-19) waves in 2021, helped by targeted containment measures and progress on vaccination, but is now facing a potentially large economic shock from the war in Ukraine. One sector is critical to achieving Kenya’s development goals, accounts for …
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has set back the economy and fiscal balances of Sierra Leone, which are now further impacted by the war in Ukraine. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth turned negative in 2020, while the government’s efforts to reduce the fiscal deficit were undermined by the need for …
Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons from Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, the analysis of development dynamics aims to assist African leaders in reaching the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: …
Employment in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has grown one percent per year on average within private sector firms, which is much lower than the five percent average among other middle-income peers. In addition, the female labor force participation rate of 20% is the lowest in …
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an estimated 55 million Africans into extreme poverty in 2020 and reversed more than two decades of progress in poverty reduction on the continent. This is according to the Economic Report on Africa 2021(ERA2021). Titled: “Addressing Poverty and Vulnerability in Africa during …
Small island developing States (SIDS) are among the most water-scarce countries in the world, with seven in ten SIDS facing risks of water shortage, including nine in ten low-lying SIDS (UNESCO, UNEP, 2016). Water being an element of life, its scarcity undermines fundamental priorities, such as the human right to …
Over the past two decades, the region has lifted millions out of poverty. Most countries are now in a position to offer their citizens many more opportunities to live longer, healthier, more productive and secure lives. In a wealthier but riskier world, these achievements are threatened by three overlapping crises. …
South Asia’s growth rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, the uneven recovery from the pandemic has left countries in South Asia with multiple policy challenges, which are exacerbated by the impact of the war in Ukraine. While several countries are navigating rising inflation and growing difficulties to finance fiscal …
Amid continuing uncertainty over the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global risks, the region’s economic recovery and progress must be anchored in “a new social contract” of inclusiveness to protect the vulnerable from future shocks, according to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific for …
Five decades after its establishment, the African Development Fund continues to play a key role in improving the lives of millions of people across Africa. Established in 1972 and operational in 1974, the Fund provides low-income African countries, including those in fragile situations, with catalytic finance via grants, guarantees mechanism …
