The Country Opinion Survey in Macedonia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Macedonia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia,...

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...

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 Kyrgyz Republic became a parliamentary democracy in 2010 following political turmoil and ethnic unrest. Kyrgyz Republic's economy has been resilient; however, the growth momentum of the past few years has been declining due to the difficult global economic environment and regional conflicts'...

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...

Bolivia made substantial progress in reducing poverty and inequality during the commodity boom, and despite the adverse external context of the past five years, poverty reduction continued, albeit more slowly. Expansionary policies allowed the country to continue growing and reducing poverty...