There are few areas of economic policy-making in which the returns to good decisions are so high-and the punishment of bad decisions so cruel-as in the management of natural resource wealth. Rich endowments of oil, gas and minerals have set some countries on courses of sustained and robust...

After several years of robust growth, real GDP growth slowed to 2.9 percent in 2008 owing to a decline in mining output. The nonmining primary deficit (NMPD) amounted to 28.6 percent of nonmining GDP in 2008/09, well above the 16.8 percent NMPD in 2007/08. Botswana continues to peg the pula to a...

This Joint Staff Advisory Note reviews the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Sierra Leone. The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) provides an adequate framework for reducing poverty in Sierra Leone. The PRSP is the result of an extensive participatory process. The foundation of the PRSP...