Firms and entrepreneurs of all types - from microenterprises to multinationals - play a central role in growth and poverty reduction. Their investment decisions drive job creation, the availability and affordability of goods and services for consumers, and the tax revenues governments can draw...

The COVID-19 pandemic has, with alarming speed, dealt a heavy blow to an already-weak global economy, which is expected to slide into its deepest recession since the second world war, despite unprecedented policy support. The global recession would be deeper if countries take longer to bring the...

Global outlook : a fragile recovery -- Special focus 1 : Debt dynamics in emerging market and developing economies : time to act? -- Special focus 2 : Arm's-length trade : a source of post-crisis trade weakness -- Regional outlooks.

Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to have decelerated from 2.5 percent in 2017 to 2.3percent in 2018, below the rate of growth of population for a fourth consecutive year. Regional growth in2018 is below the pace projected in 2018 October issue of Africa's Pulse {0.4 percentage...

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, and Ambassador Andrew Young engaged in a roundtable discussion on economic development, moderated by Dean Bahl of Georgia State. Wolfowitz has made Africa the first priority of the Bank. There is really a chance for Africa to turn the corner. It's...

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...

The three countries covered in this first report, Mali, Chad and Niger, share a number of common characteristics and face a similar set of challenges, which provides the foundation for this joint-review approach. All three are low-income landlocked economies. Each relies heavily on the...

Cabo Verde has focused on increasing student learning outcomes by improving the quality of education in the country. An effective student assessment system is an important component of efforts to improve education quality and learning outcomes because it provides the necessary information to...