This report reviews South Africa's recent economic and social developments. It underlines that South Africa's current economic rebound may not be sustained if the fundamental factors undermining its growth potential are not boldly addressed. This includes in particular income inequality, which...

The outlook for the global economy has darkened amid elevated trade tensions. International trade and investment are moderating, trade tensions remain elevated, and financing conditions are tightening. Global growth is projected to moderate from a downwardly revised 3 percent in 2018 to 2.9...

Section one provides an economic update and assesses the challenges and near-term prospects facing the South African economy. In particular, it looks at the implications for South Africa of the resurgence of uncertainty in global financial markets, the surge in capital flows to safe-haven...

The geo-economy presents Lebanon with challenges associated with being a nexus for regional fault lines and risks from its dependence on capital inflows. Despite markedly improved security conditions since the start of 2015, anxiety over regional turmoil and potential spillover effectspersist....

The MEM is the World Bank's biannual flagship publication on Malaysia. It provides analysis of recent economic developments and the near-term outlook for Malaysia. Each publication also focuses on a special topic related to Malaysia's transformation into a high-income economy. Malaysia is at the...

This edition of the Kazakhstan Economic Update is part of a biannual series designed to monitor economic developments in Kazakhstan. It presents a concise analysis of macroeconomic and structural conditions from late 2015 through the first five months of 2016

Global economic activity is showing little sign of improvement in 2016, but growth in the emerging East Asia and the Pacific remains resilient. In Vietnam economic activity moderated in the first half of 2016, mainly due to the impact of a severe drought on agricultural production and slower...

Amidst a turbulent regional political and security environment, Jordan wrestles with sluggish growth and high unemployment. A number of risks materialized in 2015, particularly related to security spillovers and their negative impact on tourism, construction, investment and exports. As such, the...

The Kyrgyz economy has remained resilient in the face of continued significant external head winds in 2015, but sources of vulnerability have increased.While overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP)growth is estimated to have slowed to 3.5 percent in 2015, this deceleration was mostly on accountof...

The Thai economy shows signs of a nascent recovery but faces challenges on the path toward a broad-based and sustained recovery. The Thai economy accelerated to 2.8 percent in 2015, compared to 0.9 percent in 2014, partly on the basis of government consumption and investment, and partly on...