Food price inflation in Laos has surged into double digits since mid-2022, surpassing global and regional trends. High food prices impact the welfare of both consumers and agricultural producers. Holding all other factors constant, increasing food prices diminishes households' purchasing power....

The Country Opinion Survey in Laos People's Democratic Republic (PDR) assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Laos PDR perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies,...

Two-thirds of people in the Lao People's Democratic Republic live in rural areas, yet agriculture contributes less than one-fifth of gross domestic product. As such, farm incomes remain low and many lack access to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and risk falling into...

This report presents technical recommendations for the Lao People's Democratic Republic's Long-Term Low-Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) and its implementation. An LT-LEDS is a strategic document that outlines a country's plan under the Paris Agreement for low-emission development by...

Laos PDR is a landlocked country with a low GDP growth rate of 6% over the last few decades. GDP per capita increased to USD 2,550 in 2018 and then dropped to USD 1,880 in 2020, which has been affected by the pandemic of COVID-19 since late 2019. The services sector is the largest contributor to...

Growth gathered momentum in 2023 on the back of recovering external demand, but exchange rate depreciation continues and inflation remains persistently high. Labor and FX shortages are intensifying. Public debt is assessed to be unsustainable, despite a tight fiscal stance. FX reserves remain low

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) is facing economic challenges. The country is experiencing a growth slowdown with high levels of public debt. Growing current expenditure and debt service obligations amid sluggish tax revenue led to a widening fiscal deficit in the early 2010s, which...

The education sector in the Lao PDR (Laos) faces significant challenges. Access to education improved over of the past decade but substantial gaps remain, and previous progress is being undermined by the impacts of COVID-19 and ongoing economic difficulties. The quality of education was already...

The Lao PDR is facing unprecedented macroeconomic challenges, which jeopardize hard-won development gains. Over the past two decades, the country attracted considerable foreign investment and fostered regional integration, which contributed to a long period of high economic growth. Many human...

Economic growth remains below pre-COVID-19 levels, mainly owing to protracted macroeconomic instability. Economic growth is estimated at 3.7 percent for 2023, with positive contributions from the services sector (for example, tourism, transport, and logistics) and mining. Electricity generation,...

A technical assistance mission from the IMF's Statistics Department visited Lao People's Democratic Republic during May 11-12, 2023, to support the authorities in continuing to improve the compilation and dissemination of public sector debt statistics (PSDS). The mission assisted the authorities...

Over the past few decades, special economic zones (SEZs) have become a widely used industrial policy tool to support structural transformation and economic development. Yet their impact on the economy remains inconclusive, especially in developing countries where the lack of data presents a...

Health taxes are excise taxes imposed on products that have a negative public health impact. Excise taxation is one of the most cost-effective policy measures to reduce consumption of these products, while also raising meaningful revenue. In the Lao PDR, the tax system under collects revenue,...

This paper employs an input-output modelling approach to quantify the impact of decreases in coffee exports between 2019 and 2020 resulting from the implementation of various COVID-19 policies in Lao PDR. The analysis was undertaken at two levels in investigating the effects of these policies on...

This study investigates the link between agriculture and infrastructure development in order to provide policy options to maximize the opportunities for Lao agriculture sector in the context of Laos-China railway. Primary data collection from field surveys in provinces along the corridor of the...

Dissemination of information can enhance smallholder farmers’ agricultural outcomes and incomes in developing countries. However, the impact evaluation for new information can be inaccurate without considering pre-existing information that the indigenous people have used. This study explores...

"China, Laos and Vietnam are three of a handful of late socialist countries where capitalist economics rubs up against party-state politics. In these countries, sweeping processes of change open up new vistas of opportunity and imaginaries of the future alongside much uncertainty and anxiety,...

We investigate the impact of electrification on the economic, educational, and environmental outcomes of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). We use household-level data and a novel identification scheme, whereby we instrument the electrification status with the proportion of...

Purpose - This study empirically aims to analyze the transmission of monetary policy in consideration of asymmetry based on the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL)'s monetary policy tools and real and financial variables in the domestic market. Design/methodology/approach - This study adopts two...

The World Bank's Road Maintenance Group project in the Lao People's Democratic Republic offered road maintenance jobs to women in remote villages, targeting the poorest households. The project had three objectives: to increase the longevity of new roads, mitigate poverty, and empower...

Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam – the so-called Mekong-3 - have experienced rapid trade growth over the last ten years. However, growth could be boosted even further by improving access to trade finance, such as loans and guarantees, for locally owned businesses...

Dissemination of information can enhance smallholder farmers' agricultural outcomes and incomes in developing countries. However, the impact evaluation for new information can be inaccurate without considering pre-existing information that the indigenous people have used. This study explores...

Acknowledgements -- List of illustrations -- Notes on Contributors -- 1 Rural Life in Late Socialism: Politics of Development and Imaginaries of the Future -- Phill Wilcox, Jonathan Rigg and Minh Nguyen -- 2 Risk Perception and Lowland Rice Farming Change in Savannakhet Province, Southern Laos...

Despite persistent macroeconomic instability, economic growth continued to recover in 2023, underpinned largely by a steady improvement in the service sector. GDP growth is forecast at 3.7 percent in 2023, slightly down from the projection in May 2023, primarily reflecting higher-than-expected...

Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam -- the so-called Mekong-3 -- have experienced rapid trade growth over the last ten years. However, growth could be boosted even further by improving access to trade finance, such as loans and guarantees, for locally owned businesses...

This paper employs an input-output modelling approach to quantify the impact of decreases in coffee exports between 2019 and 2020 resulting from the implementation of various COVID-19 policies in Lao PDR. The analysis was undertaken at two levels in investigating the effects of these policies on...