In September 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated housing on the island of Sint Maarten. Between January and March of 2019, a World Bank team carried out this Rapid Housing Sector Diagnostic. The Diagnostic is based on information gathered during a one-week mission to Sint Maarten, desktop research,...

The Niger Urbanization Review aims to improve our understanding of urbanization and local governance in Niger by analyzing the current and potential contribution of urbanization to the country's long-term national development and the institutional and financial capacity of local governments to...

The Moroccan economy is recovering. Following a sharp deceleration in 2022 caused by various overlapping commodity and climatic shocks, economic growth increased to 2.9 percent in the first semester of 2023, driven primarily by services and net exports. Inflation has halved between February and...

The Yemen Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Yemen. The Monitor places these developments, policies, and findings in a longer-term and global context and assesses their...

Algeria's GDP recovered to its pre-pandemic level in 2022, while high oil and gas prices allowed for marked improvements in its external and fiscal balances. The recovery continued during the first half of 2023, albeit at a slower pace, supported by nonhydrocarbon activity and investment. Oil...

Since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, Togo's economy has shown signs of resilience in the face of shocks but efforts to reduce poverty were frustrated and fiscal space depleted. Togo was able to avoid a recession in 2020, with real GDP growth recorded at 2 percent, before rebounding rapidly to...

In the context of weakening global demand, growth in the Western Balkans decelerated over the course of 2022 and into 2023. Against the background of the lasting effects of shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sticky inflation, and tighter financial conditions, global demand has been...

Oil windfalls during the 2000s were largely squandered, with Sudan failing to build the foundations of a non-oil economy. As part of the sanctions, the country was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism (SST), which restricted foreign assistance and debt reduction, resulted in isolation from...

Global economic activity registered resilient growth in early 2023 but is losing momentum. Advanced economies growth slowed less-than-anticipated inearly 2023 as tight labor markets drove wages up, preventing a sharp decline in consumption. However, global growth slowed slightly in Q2 2023, with...

The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) for Africa is an annual diagnostic tool for Sub-Saharan African countries that are eligible for financing from the International Development Association (IDA), the part of the World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries. The CPIA...