Over the years, the demand for seamless and inexpensive cross-border payments has grown in parallel with growth in international e-commerce, remittances and tourism. Yet, cross-border payments have not kept pace with the intensive modernization that has characterized domestic payment services...

In recent years, due to innovations in technology, the concept of digital currency has emerged out of the desire of some private entities to replicate specific properties of cash in the digital space. Digital currencies have been issued in various electronic formats and value propositions, and...

Payment and settlement systems and services have become vital components of the economic life of contemporary societies. Over the last decades, they have gone through several waves of reforms that have changed the landscape of the national payments system (NPS) in virtually every country in the...

This report aims at assisting Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) to establish an effective oversight framework to monitor the different payment and settlement systems, payment instruments and payment service providers in the Maldives. The framework for oversight is based on the Bank for...

This note examines the observance by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) of the good practices on transparency in monetary policy. The transparency analysis was based on a review of relevant laws and regulations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF s) code of good practices...

This report presents an analysis conducted by the World Bank to assess macro-fiscal impacts of earthquakes and floods in European Union (EU) Member States (MS), analyze the financial instruments in place to manage this risk and identify any associated funding gaps. The analysis is underpinned by...

Over the period 2019-21, Albania had to confront dual shocks: the 2019 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both had sizable impacts on the country's economy. The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on an economy already affected by the earthquake in 2019. Key sectors were put in lockdown in...

Russia saw strong growth in 2021, with momentum weakening late in the year. Growth will slow as Russia battles COVID-19 and elevated inflation. Globally, environmental sustainability is becoming central to the economic agenda. The challenge for Russia is to fundamentally transform its economic...

The special topic of this edition of the Macroeconomic Monitoring report focuses on the TC administration's 'public' financial support to the agriculture sector. Due to the Turkish lira depreciation, the recent adverse climate conditions, and exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, the agriculture...