The Public Finance Review (PFR) analyzes Lebanon's public finances over a long horizon, to understand the roots of the fiscal profligacy and its eventual insolvency. To do so, the PFR links three critical elements in three Sections. Section I: Fiscal Policy in the Second Republic; Section II:...

The Vietnamese economy has done well in 2019. In the context of increasing global uncertainty,Vietnam will most certainly be among the fastest growing economies in the world, with a GDP growth rate of approximately 6.8 percent. This rate is almost three times faster than the world average (2.6...

This document has the purpose of identifying and describing actions that could aid in facilitating the financing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through instruments channeled via the capital markets. By way of precedent, it is worthwhile to mention the document a Argentina capital market...

Pakistan is facing yet another balance of payment crisis. Authorities have taken some corrective measures and negotiated a 39-month stabilization program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nonetheless, inflationary pressures increased during FY19. Current account deficit narrowed as...

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic will have a large negative impact on the Kenyan economy. Even before being affected by the novel coronavirus, Kenya's economy had decelerated. The World Bank estimates that GDP growth in 2019 was about 5.6 percent, down from 6.3 percent in 2018. The...

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic is exposing Brazil to an unprecedented challenge. The pandemic is expected to plunge Brazil into another recession. Although the pain of recession can be felt across the economy, smaller firms are expected to be more affected because they tend to be more...

Before the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, Somalia's economy was on an upward trajectory, recovering from the 2016/17 drought. The economy grew at an estimated rate of 2.9 percent in 2019, on par with population growth, and was projected to grow at 3.2 percent in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has...

This report presents an overview of Algeria's recent macroeconomic developments and of its short-term economic outlook. The report is divided into two chapters. Chapter one presents the country's macroeconomic developments in 2019, which establishes the context for the unprecedented developments...

Ukraine provides an illuminating example of a health system that has responded to a health shock in a way that both builds health system resilience and advances health system reforms. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Ukraine in early 2020, a set of major health financing and provider...

More than three years after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, it is time to take stock of the lasting effects-and opportunities-of the pandemic and identify which policies may have helped stem the economic losses suffered by households and firms....