The past 25 years have witnessed unprecedented changes around the world - many of them for the better. Across the continents, many countries have embarked on a path of international integration, economic reform, technological modernization, and democratic participation. As a result, economies...

"The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the changes in the calculation of minimum regulatory capital requirements for credit risk that have been drafted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel II). Even though the revised credit capital rules represent a dramatic...

China has long known more than its fair share of disasters, including earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and droughts. The good news is that in recent decades, the country has made tremendous headway in building its resilience to disasters. Learning from these efforts will be critical to...

Burkina Faso is one of the priority countries of the World Bank's Disaster Risk Management (DRM) team for 2009 to 2011. this country note on Disaster Risk Management and Adaptation to Climate Change (DRM/ACC) is a baseline document for priority investments in those areas, and for the support the...

Economic growth in Central America has increased rapidly over the past 20 years. Currently, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the six Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama averages approximately US$3,600. However, masked...