In 2015, Lao PDR is virtually unrecognizable from what it was just a decade ago. A more open, more outward trade landscape has transformed the country from a closed-off backwater into a fast-growing developing country, complete with coffee shops, restaurants, and billboards lining the streets of...

In the last decades, slow growth and job creation have encouraged emigration, further dampening domestic sources of growth in Nepal. Tepid growth over the past decade, the slowest in the region, has resulted in few jobs being created, leading to more Nepalese workers seeking opportunities...

This handbook intends to be a resource for those interested in trade policy reform, in Pakistan and elsewhere. It arose from the Pakistan trade and investment policy program (PTIPP). The PTIPP was designed to work on trade, competitiveness, and gender in Pakistan. This handbook focuses on two...

Authorities in East Asia Pacific (EAP) jurisdictions have adopted a battery of fiscal, monetary, and financial measures aimed at mitigating the unprecedented impacts of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy. This report discusses the quality of loan portfolios in the...

Long COVID: Scars and Opportunity. The title of this report has two meanings. First, that the disease will leave in its wake a durably damaged economy. Second, that the disease is not leaving any time soon and may be here to stay. This duality reflects the two themes of this Update. In the near...

Amidst a fragile recovery, three clouds are gathering over the economic horizon: US inflation could provoke financial tightening, China's structural slowdown and zero-COVID-19 policy could dampen regional exports, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could disrupt food and fuel supplies,...

Growth in the developing East Asia and Pacific region slowed sharply in 2020Q1 because of the negative impact of the Covid-19 on economic activity. The decline has been broad-based reflecting the interconnectedness of the EAP economies and reverberations from the global economy as the virus...

The Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center (PFTAC) produced 'A Public Financial Management Roadmap for Forum Island Countries' ("The Roadmap") in 2009 (PFTAC 2010). This document was adopted at the Forum Economic Ministers' Meeting (FEMM) of the Pacific Island Forum as an agreed approach...

The rapid review confirms that Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are socially, culturally, and environmentally diverse, with some features in common, and which collectively make them unique to other regions of the world: Small island countries have uniquely fragile water resources...

Developing East Asia is battling the forces of global recession. The impact of the crisis in the advanced countries was transmitted to the economies of the region with unusual speed. In the region, the initial global financial turbulence was marked by sudden reversals of capital flows in the...