The full report on which this Quick Note is based argues that Middle East and North Africa's (MENA's) financial systems contributed significantly to these unsatisfactory outcomes by failing to provide affordable access to finance to large segments of the enterprise and household sectors. The...

In Middle East and North Africa (MENA), state banks played a less important role in the recovery as compared to several countries in Latin America and South Asia, as well as China, where state banks played a counter-cyclical role. When private banks started circumscribing credit, state banks...