This is a companion to the Global Economic Prospects 2010. Most commodity prices reached historical highs in mid-2008, giving rise to the longest and broadest commodity boom of the post-WWII period. Apart from strong and sustained economic growth, the boom was fueled by numerous factors...

This paper presents an innovative yet practical framework to assess corporate sector vulnerability and the links to exchange rates and financial crises that bridges the gap between corporate finance and macroeconomic analysis. This framework missing describing how changes in aggregate value of...

Over the last two decades banking systems in Latin America have been subject to considerable banking distress and numerous crises. This conference looked at proposals for preventing such episodes. The discussions covered the genesis and implications of deposit insurance cum fractional reserve...

Private and public sector sponsors of infrastructure, industrial and other commercial projects in developing countries are looking increasingly to the project finance structure to fund these operations. The World Bank has an array of financial instruments to support these projects. This paper...

This study evaluates the performance of financial markets in rural areas of Romania based on the 1998 rural household, rural enterprise, and financial intermediary surveys, along with other official statistical data for 1997. It presents empirical evidence indicating that constrained access to...

The main objective of this report is to evaluate World Bank lending for small enterprises between FY89 and FY93, including both small and medium enterprises and microenterprises. There has been a marked shift in the Bank's work in this area, and this review details the nature and content of this...

The decline in commodity prices that began with metals and agriculture four years ago—joined by crude oil in mid-2014—continued in 2015Q1 (Figure 1). Energy, metals, and agricultural prices were down 28, 11, and 5 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter. Increasing supplies, bumper...