This engagement note provides a snapshot of financial development in the countries of the GulfCooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and identifies key areas of the financial sector reform agenda where the World Bank Group (WBG)...

Banking financial intermediation relative to the economy is low and declining. The depthof the Romanian banking sector is lagging both in terms of deposit and loan penetration. Cross-cutting factors such as poverty, rurality and informality form a set of constraints that still persist affecting...

Iraq's economy continued its recovery after the sharp, pandemic-induced recession in 2020 but growth constraints in the oil sector have reemerged. After moderating in 2022, consumer price inflation ticked up in early 2023, fueled by the depreciation of the Iraqi dinar in the parallel market....

This report responds to the February 2016 request from the G20. The report has been prepared in the framework of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (the "PCT"), under the responsibility of the Secretariats and Staff of the four mandated organizations. The report reflects a broad consensus...

Promoting a high savings rate is high on the World Bank's agenda for promoting national income growth. This study surveys broad saving trends worldwide, summarizes current knowledge about savings and consumption, identifies main unresolved issues, and outlines the major policy questions to be...

This paper discusses key findings and policy proposals for modernizing Hungary's subnational government system the perspective of fiscal decentralization, local capacity building, and development of a competitive credit market. Hungary has been a pioneer in local government reform among...

The present report draws on experience from industrialized and developing countries in terms of capital market financing of domestic infrastructure projects, and discusses the applicaiblity of these lessons in the Chinese context. It also describes the strategies these economies have adopted to...

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...

Sector Investment Programs (SIPs) are an important initiative for addressing several weaknesses of development aid practice. A SIP is an integrated program comprising a strategy for the sector, a government expenditure program, a management framework providing for common implementation...