This paper takes stock of the economic performance of resource rich countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past forty years. While those countries have maintained high levels of income per capita, they have performed poorly when going beyond the assessment based on...

This paper discusses key findings of the Second Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Program performance has been generally satisfactory. The quantitative performance criteria were observed, as was most of the structural conditionality. One structural performance...

Kuwait’s economy was affected significantly by the global crisis. The financial sector experienced funding pressures and deterioration in asset quality. The economic outcome depends largely on government spending and the associated private investment. Stress tests indicate that the...

The three-point VAT increase is part of a package in which unemployment payroll taxes will be reduced. Risks to the recovery are balanced but the range of forecasts for 2007 is unusually wide. The priority for Germany is to transmit its external strength to the domestic economy, thus further...

Sweden represents an archetypal welfare state economy, with extensive government safety nets. Some scholars have attributed a decline in its per capita income ranking since 1970 to "eurosclerosis" or sluggish growth caused by distortionary policies. This paper argues rather, that the permanent...

Since the onset of the Arab Spring, economic uncertainty in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen (Arab Countries in Transition, ACTs) has slowed already sluggish growth; worsened unemployment, particularly of youth; undermined business confidence, affected tourist arrivals, and...

The crisis in Europe has underscored the vulnerability of European bank funding models compared to international peers. This paper studies the drivers behind this fragility and examines the future of bank funding, primarily wholesale, in Europe. We argue that cyclical and structural factors have...

The Belgian financial system is relatively large, concentrated, and interconnected and has a high level of compliance with the Basel Core Principles (BCPs) for effective banking supervision. The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) deploys high-quality supervisory practices and has clear lines of...

This Detailed Assessment of Compliance—Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision on the Republic of Belarus reviews principle-by-principle assessment and authorities’ response to the assessment. The legal framework for the regulation and supervision of the financial...