Before the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008, countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) experienced strong economic growth. Demand for electricity increased steadily with gross domestic product (GDP). GDP grew, on average, 6.5 percent between 2000 and 2007, and...

Independent evaluation of International Finance Corporations (IFC's) development results 2009 takes stock of the development performance of IFC's investment operations, and examines, for the first time, the development effectiveness of its Advisory Services (AS), thus offering the first holistic...

This book is about development and measuring development progress. While precise definitions may vary, development is, at heart, a process of building wealth, the produced, natural, human, and institutional capital which is the source of income and wellbeing. A key finding is that it is...

Market nervousness concerning the fiscal positions of several European high-income countries poses a new challenge for the world economy. This arises as the recovery is transitioning toward a more mature phase during which the influence of rebound factors (such as fiscal stimulus) fades, and...

The world economy has entered a dangerous period. Some of the financial turmoil in Europe has spread to developing and other high-income countries, which until earlier had been unaffected. This contagion has pushed up borrowing costs in many parts of the world, and pushed down stock markets,...

The global financial crisis is no longer the major force dictating the pace of economic activity in developing countries. The majorities of developing countries has, or are close to having regained full-capacity activity levels. As a result, country-specific productivity and sartorial factors...

In this report several records stand out from fiscal year 2007: Nearly half (48 percent) of projects supported by MIGA were in IDA-eligible countries, bringing MIGA's outstanding exposure in IDA countries to 41 percent. In addition, 38 percent of the projects supported during the year were in...