It is now clear that a narrow focus on the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient to achieve humanity's aspirations for sustainable prosperity. Wellfunctioning ecosystems and educated populations are requisites for sustainable wellbeing. These and other too-often-neglected...

International Debt Statistics (IDS), a long-standing annual publication of the World Bank, features external debt statistics and analysis for the 123 low- and middle-income countries that report to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. IDS 2022 includes (1) an overview analyzing global trends...

The majority of the world's children live in countries where local governments are responsible for the provision of basic education services. Although subnational governments manage their own education systems, they often rely on transfers from the central government for funding. The main...

Labor regulations are important determinants of resource allocation, productivity, and labor market outcomes. They can protect workers’ rights, enhance job security, and improve working conditions. However, overly restrictive regulations can also increase business costs, becoming barriers to...

South Sudan faced significant headwinds in FY2020/21, with the pandemic, floods, and violence flareups affecting economic activities. Consequently, the economy is estimated to have contracted by 5.4 percent in FY2020/21. Oil production declined by 5.9 percent as floods affected production and...

This country economic memorandum aims to support Niger's efforts to walk on a path conducive to a resilient and sustainable economic growth. It does so by attempting to answer the following five questions, each of which constitutes a separate chapter: (i) what were the salient structural...

Severely impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, Djibouti's economic activity has shown signs of recovery in 2021.This first edition of the Djibouti Economic Monitor (DEM) launches a program of reports with semi-annual frequency that analyze the trends and constraints to...

Global economic growth has picked up in 2021 and has now surpassed its pre-pandemic level. The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has maintained an accommodative monetary stance and other measures to support the recovery, taking advantage of low inflation. The government's continued fiscal expansion...

World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and...

Sub-Saharan Africa has achieved significant gains in reducing the levels of extreme poverty in recent decades, yet the region continues to experience challenges across the development indicators, including energy access, literacy, delivery of services and goods, and jobs skills, as well as low...