Section one provides an economic update and assesses the challenges and near-term prospects facing the South African economy. In particular, it looks at the implications for South Africa of the resurgence of uncertainty in global financial markets, the surge in capital flows to safe-haven...

This year???s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person???s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts,...

The chapters, or "policy notes," of this report, creating the foundations for equitable growth in Mexico 2006-2012, are dedicated to trying to solve parts of the puzzle as to why Mexico's level of economic development has failed to approach the level of its NAFTA trading partners, or the level...

In the past three decades, the Philippines has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty. Driven by high growth rates and structural transformation, the poverty rate fell by two-thirds, from 49.2 percent in 1985 to 16.7 percent in 2018. By 2018, the middle class had expanded to nearly 12...

The purpose of this poverty assessment is to shine a new light on poverty, inequality, and its drivers in Costa Rica. The report provides a descriptive overview of poverty trends in the country and examines why the poorest do not reap the benefits of economic growth. It provides high-level...

In 2020, Brazil was about to face socioeconomic disruptions of historical proportions. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic broke several undesirable Brazilian records. First, the pandemic wreaked an enormous direct human toll, sickening millions and causing the death of 195,441 Brazilians in 2020...

Nicaragua is a small, open economy that is vulnerable to external and natural shocks. With an estimated Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$1000 in 2006, and a total population of 5.2 million, it is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Forty six percent of the population lived...