Limited access to finance is a major obstacle to development of SMEs in Africa as their inherent higher perceived risk makes financial institutions reluctant to lend to them and adequate financial instruments lack.

Limited capacity to pay, large infrastructure needs and a huge backlog in the construction of sanitation facilities make recourse to cross-subsidies and government-funded subsidies a necessity in Africa. * This Policy Insights introduces the African Economic Outlook 2007.

Africa’s economic progress now seems on a firm footing after a third straight year of satisfactory performance in 2005, with overall growth of 5 per cent, average per capita income up 3 per cent and inflation steady at under 10 per cent. Two-thirds of the 30 countries surveyed in the Africa...

Access to energy is essential for economic, social and political development. Despite its enormous potential in fossil and renewable energy sources, Africa suffers from major energy deficits. The continent’s resources are underexploited or exported in raw form or wasted in the course of...

Africa is unlikely to reach the drinking water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals. Disparities among countries are large, and the deficit in sanitation is greater than that for drinking water. Serious reforms in institutions, legal frameworks, and policies are needed.

Transport infrastructure has been dangerously neglected in recent times. Lack of transport infrastructure impedes economic integration and poverty reduction. Involving the private sector in financing the transport infrastructure is proving harder than anticipated.

• Tariffs still matter. • Full tariff liberalisation to 2010 would generate dynamic welfare gains of $1 200 billion (at 1995 prices), equivalent to 3 per cent of World GDP in 2010, from greater efficiency and higher productivity. • Developing countries stand to gain relatively more from...

A partir d’un modèle dynamique d’équilibre général appliqué au Costa Rica, les auteurs analysent les liens entre l’environnement, le commerce international et la croissance économique. Leur étude envisage les conséquences des politiques commerciales et environnementales sur...

In this paper, we analyse the potential contribution of the Internet and its commercial application to the development process in poor countries. In historical perspective, the Internet has diffused at a far faster rate than earlier generations of communications technology: from 1990 to early...

With the aid of a computable general equilibrium model, this paper estimates for India the magnitude of spillovers from limiting growth of greenhouse gas emissions to local air quality and the health of the urban population. The most important spillovers are reductions in emissions of...