The paper is based on a scenario workshop held on January 20, 2009, where leading financial and private sector development experts from IFC, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank discussed the unfolding crisis. This paper is a product of the staff of the Financial and Private...

Strong poverty reduction in Latin America resumed with the growth rebound in 2010, as both moderate and extreme poor households benefitted from the recovery, accelerating poverty reduction to rates similar to those witnessed between 2003-2006 despite a 2.8 percent decline in Gross Domestic...

This study assesses the main spillover effects of the Libyan crisis on the Tunisian economy and estimates the crisis' overall social welfare and fiscal impacts on Tunisia. The authors consider four main effects on Tunisia: (i) the increased presence of Libyans in Tunisia (both short- and...

This is a speech given by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, at the Annual Meetings held in Washington D.C., on October 6, 1998. It sets out the Bank's role and mission in dealing with the human crisis that has received so little attention in the media. Dealing with that...

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the waves of financial crises. He noted the changes in the international scene in recent decades put the current crisis in a different light. The World Bank is trying to help the countries strengthen financial systems; get better...

This note summarizes the findings of the analysis carried out regarding the poverty and inequality impacts of the ongoing economic crisis in Brazil in 2016 and 2017. The first objective is to get an estimate of the extent to which the deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and shrinking labor...

The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased...

This paper examines the impact of the recent recession in Belarus on poverty and broader measures of household welfare and compares the recent recession episode to previous economic crises in Belarus. The paper constructs a measure of vulnerability to poverty, based on an estimated probability...

This paper presents new high-frequency data on trade policy changes targeting medical and food products since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting how countries used trade policy instruments in response to the health crisis on a week-by-week basis. The data set reveals a rapid...

This paper documents stylized facts on rates of returns to education during economic crises. It shows from three middle-income countries - Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Africa - that the rate of return to university education (versus secondary education) has increased during economic crises....