Pension fund withdrawals, rising public debt, and the Central Bank of Chile's pandemic liquidity injections have reshaped Chile's financial landscape. In the context of the diminished demand for local bonds, large non-financial corporations and the government relied more on foreign investors....

The Chilean real estate sector has recently undergone adjustments which have increased the risks for the financial sector, but the system remains overall resilient. In the baseline, the real estate market is expected to modestly recover, and several factors mitigate credit risk. The buffers in...

Productivity growth depends not only on technological innovation but also on production networks that amplify its impact. Theory and cross-country evidence indicate a positive relationship between productivity growth and the use of intermediate inputs, a measure of network connectedness. We find...

The Maltese authorities have made significant progress towards gender equality over the last two decades. Supportive government policies and a steady inflow of foreign labor have played a key role in increasing women's participation in the labor market. In addition, the attainment of higher...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI models and their use have significantly advanced in recent years, evolving from their historical role in automating routine tasks to now performing complex cognitive functions. As a result, it has the potential to reshape the job landscape across a...

Malta's rapid growth over the past two decades has gone hand in hand with a significant expansion of the population. This has created bottlenecks in infrastructure, which will need to be addressed. While capacity in energy and water supply is currently adequate, investments in wastewater...

Kosovo has embarked on a journey of digital transformation, developing digital infrastructure to provide access to households, companies, and educational institutions and modernizing its public finance system through GovTech. Digitalization and GovTech can facilitate Kosovo leapfrogging into...

This paper examines the evolution and challenges of Kosovo's pension system. Since its inception, a basic pension and mandatory individual accounts have formed the key element of Kosovo's pension system. Over the years, the pension system has expanded to include a variety of merit pensions,...

This paper analyzes the transmission of ECB policy rate changes to bank interest rates in Kosovo during the 2022-23 tightening cycle. While both lending and deposit rates increased, the passthrough was more limited compared to the euro area and regional peers. Three key factors explain this...

This paper analyzes reserve adequacy measurement in Kosovo, where euro serves as the legal tender. The study adapts the IMF's Assessing Reserve Adequacy framework to Kosovo's unique monetary context, focusing on precautionary motives for holding reserves. The analysis reveals limited readily...