Serbia now has an exceptional policy opportunity to promote skills development and create a productive future workforce and a prosperous economy. With its population aging and the nature of work changing in a technologically transforming and globalizing economy, a highly skilled Serbian...

Because of its difficult starting position in transitioning to a market economy, so far macroeconomic policy in Serbia has mainly been concerned with achieving stability. At the start of its transition in 2001, Serbia was practically bankrupt, burdened with old overdue debt and huge arrears in...

Serbia is not growing as fast it could. Investment and productivity are low and slow growing; and the continuing large role of the state in the economy makes it difficult for the private sector to accelerate economic growth. Serbia is well-positioned to turn itself into a fast-growing,...

Developments in the Rwandan economy as of the first half of 2017 have been mixed. On the upside, Rwanda's external imbalances have eased on account of improvements in global commodity prices, global and regional strengthening of growth recovery, and the external adjustment the government...

Developments in the second half of 2017 indicate that the slowdown in Mozambique's economic performance may be taking hold, shifting this once fast-growing economy to a more modest pace of growth. GDP growth is expected to dip to 3.1 percent in 2017, despite substantial increases in coal and...

This document presents the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for the Republic of Burundi (Burundi). The SCD identifies the key challenges and opportunities for Burundi to accelerate progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity in a sustainable manner, while acknowledging: (i) the need...

Like many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, this sub-group of West and Central African countries has experienced relatively fast drops in mortality but persistently high levels of fertility, which implies continued high rates of population growth, which represent an important challenge to...

Sri Lanka is facing a challenging macroeconomic landscape. The post-conflict high growth momentum has decelerated. A volatile global environment and structurally weak competitiveness continue to weaken growth and external sector performance. High interest costs mask limited fiscal improvement....

Bangladesh has been a star performer on fertility reduction, reducing its TFR from 6.7 in 1960 to 2.1 in 2017 (i.e. the replacement level of fertility). As a comparison, SSA countries reduced TFR by as little as 2 births per woman, on average, between 1970 and 2016 (World Bank, 2019), with...

At the moment, a child born in Uganda will be only 38 percent as productive when she grows up as she can be if she enjoyed complete education and full health, according to the human capital index (HCI) one of the lowest levels in the world. It will be necessary to ensure that the growing...