Malawi's new Government has inherited a difficult situation: the global COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the country's trajectory for a third straight year of faster growth, and tackling its impacts will present a considerable challenge. Growth improved to an estimated 4.4 percent in 2019, up...

Before the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, Somalia's economy was on an upward trajectory, recovering from the 2016/17 drought. The economy grew at an estimated rate of 2.9 percent in 2019, on par with population growth, and was projected to grow at 3.2 percent in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has...

Economic conditions in China have changed dramatically over the past six months. The COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to contain it have triggered a combined demand and supply shock. The report projects that economic growth in China will slow sharply to 1.6 percent this year-marking the...

As of early July 2020, life in Hanoi appears to be back to normal or close to what it used to be before the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. The government's policy helped contain the virus and contributed to saving human lives. Today, most social distancing measures have been lifted. However,...

When the global COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic emerged in early 2020, Liberia was already facing a challenging domestic and external environment. Weak consumption and declining output had caused the Liberian economy to contract by an estimated 2.3 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, the inflation rate...

Sierra Leone, like many countries in the world, is now facing the dire human and economic impacts of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, Sierra Leone was one of the fastest growing countries in Africa. However, growth prospects have been severely...

Despite an initial surge in COVID-19 cases, cross country data suggests that Turkey containedrelatively quickly the spread and worst health effects of the virus. As in other countries, however, continued vigilance is essential to sustain this fragile trend. Turkey's pandemic response may offer...

The pandemic has afflicted India at a time when its economy had already been decelerating. Defying a long-term accelerating path, real GDP growth moderated from 7.0 percent in 2017-18 to 6.1 percent in 2018-19 and 4.2 percent in 2019-20. The pre-COVID-19 growth deceleration was perceived to be...

Following an unprecedented exchange-rate depreciation in 2018 that hammered both the Turkish and the Turkish Cypriot (TC) economies, the previous economic recovery in the TC economy collapsed. The fiscal deficit continued to shrink as the TC administration reduced expenditure due to declining...