Aid for trade can support countries trying to further benefit from the expanding global market place by helping to address poorly performing infrastructure and institutions. Needless to say, good policies also matter: trade liberalization, improving incentives for private investment in trade,...

Despite the growing support for market-oriented strategies, and for a greater role of private investment, empirical growth models for developing countries typically make no distinction between the private and public components of investment. This paper sheds some light on this important issue by...

Despite Mexico’s recent remarkable progress in adjusting its fiscal and external accounts and in restructuring its economy, the recovery of growth has remained elusive. This paper reviews some aspects of Mexico’s recent performance and suggests that systemic adjustment uncertainty, and...

This paper shows how growth and demography, two important determinants of the savings rate in the life-cycle approach, explain a large part of the diversity in savings behavior in Asia across eight countries as well as over time. Inflation and adverse movements in the terms of trade are found to...

This paper reviews developments in the Italian economy during 1994 with some special attention to some specific issues. It describes trends in the real economy, with special annexes focusing on the outlook for inflation and the response of employment to cyclical and structural factors. The paper...

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers are prepared by member countries in broad consultation with stakeholders and development partners, including the staffs of the World Bank and the IMF. Updated with annual progress reports, they describe the countries macroeconomic, structural, and social...

The Sixth Five Year Plan, as outlined in Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, targets strategic growth and employment. The medium-term macroeconomic framework plan entails the involvement of both the private and public sectors. Human resources development strategy programs reaching out...

This paper focuses on goal setting for development of the world. The paper highlights that the goals come from the agreements and resolutions of the world conferences organized by the United Nations in the first half of the 1990s. The paper focuses on seven goals that cover poverty, education,...