This Annual Report, which covers the period from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) in accordance with the respective bylaws of...

The World Bank group, among the world's largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in...

The EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) is a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. The BEEPS has been carried out in three rounds in 1999, 2002, and 2005 and covers virtually all of the countries of...

Russia saw strong growth in 2021, with momentum weakening late in the year. Growth will slow as Russia battles COVID-19 and elevated inflation. Globally, environmental sustainability is becoming central to the economic agenda. The challenge for Russia is to fundamentally transform its economic...

Over the years, the demand for seamless and inexpensive cross-border payments has grown in parallel with growth in international e-commerce, remittances and tourism. Yet, cross-border payments have not kept pace with the intensive modernization that has characterized domestic payment services...

In recent years, due to innovations in technology, the concept of digital currency has emerged out of the desire of some private entities to replicate specific properties of cash in the digital space. Digital currencies have been issued in various electronic formats and value propositions, and...

Payment and settlement systems and services have become vital components of the economic life of contemporary societies. Over the last decades, they have gone through several waves of reforms that have changed the landscape of the national payments system (NPS) in virtually every country in the...

This note examines the observance by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) of the good practices on transparency in monetary policy. The transparency analysis was based on a review of relevant laws and regulations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF s) code of good practices...

The 2002 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) identified considerable problems in containing the upsurge in liquidity in the financial system, partly caused by spending of oil receipts. In the face of persistent excess liquidity in the financial system, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)...

This report assesses the role of fiscal rules for countercyclical economic management in Kazakhstan and simulates the behavior of different types of fiscal rules. The work represents technical assistance to the ministry of economy and budget planning and has been financed by the joint economic...