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...

This paper examines the effect of finance on long-term economic growth using Bayesian model averaging to address model uncertainty in cross-country growth regressions. The literature largely focuses on financial indicators that assess the financial depth of banks and stock markets. These...

Mali is a vast, land-locked country in West Africa with a population of approximately 14.9 million, and a GDP per capita of USD 480. The economy is largely rural, with over two-thirds of the population living off agriculture, notably cotton. Gold is the country's largest export, though...

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, spoke about the forces in the world that are making us fundamentally rethink the approach to development at the World Bank Group. He described three paths. The first path is to accelerate inclusive and sustainable economic growth, by laying the...

This paper utilizes data for African countries to analyze the extent to which financial development affects the dynamics of the relationship between exchange rate flexibility and economic growth. The findings indicate that financial development exerts a positive influence on the relationship...

Global Financial Development Report 2015/2016 focuses on the ability of financial systems to sustainably extend the maturity of financial contracts for private agents. The challenges of extending the maturity structure of finance are often considered to be at the core of effective, sustainable...

The relationship between bank competition, firm access to finance, and economic growth is a much debated topic in the economic literature and in policy circles. This paper uses a panel of 23 manufacturing sectors over 2002–10 to investigate the impact of bank competition on industry growth in...

Private savings play a pivotal role in financing development and sustaining growth. Recently, there have been many theoretical developments that underpin key determinants of savings behavior, many of which merit empirical investigation. Understanding the dynamics of the determinants of savings...

This paper argues for a transformation of finance to support the economic and social transformation of the Middle East and North Africa. The paper first documents the existing financial system in the region. The system is heavily skewed toward banking, relative to non-banking services, such as...

This paper discusses the evolution of the Egyptian banking sector and the main trends in financial development in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The paper examines empirically the relationship between the development of the financial sector and economic growth in Egypt between 1980 and 2016. It...