With much healthcare publicly funded, Hong Kong's rapidly aging population will significant raise fiscal pressure over coming decades. We ask what the implications are of meeting these costs by public funding, or private funding voluntarily or through mandates. Our simulations suggest that...

Poverty risk is most marked for children, displaced persons and returnees, unemployed, and people with low education. Basic goals of the macroeconomic framework of the mid-term development strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina are to reduce the overall public expenditures, lower the public debt,...

This Selected Issues paper on the Slovak Republic reviews efficiency and reform of the health sector. The immediate challenge for the health care system in the Slovak Republic is to improve health sector outcomes while containing public health spending. The Slovak health care system is...

This paper discusses key findings of the annual progress report on implementing the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)—Nigeria’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The progress report highlights key accomplishments and shortcomings as well as outstanding...

This report provides an assessment of whether and how multilateral platforms could bring meaningful improvements to the cross-border payments ecosystem. It was written by the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) in collaboration with the BIS...

The past century has been marked by rapid advances in human welfare. People in most parts of the world are healthier and are living longer. While this trend is likely to continue, hopes are fading in some regions where progress slowed or stopped in the1990s, primarily as a result of the AIDS...

Côte d’Ivoire's government decided on the National Development Plan to give a new impetus to its development policy. This new strategy is based on an ambitious and realistic recovery and development program centered on private and public investment. The institutional monitoring framework for...

The Belgian insurance industry was adversely affected by the global financial crisis and continued to confront challenges related to legacy assets and economic uncertainties in Europe. The Belgian authorities have made significant progress in updating the insurance regulatory regime and...

This Selected Issues paper for the United States discusses the microeconomics of the country—household wealth and savings. Households’ consumption-saving decisions have an important bearing on the U.S. economic outlook. This paper demonstrates how households with consistently lower...

This report discusses key findings of the Financial Sector Stability Assessment on Canada. Canada’s financial system successfully navigated the global financial crisis, and stress tests suggest that major financial institutions would continue to be resilient to credit, liquidity, and...