South Asia remains home to the world's largest number of poor. There are also substantial disparities between countries. This, combined with the ongoing recession in economies the world over, raises new concerns about the challenges that confront governments and analysts today. This book...

The surge in global commodity prices of the past few years has presented a tremendous development challenge to South Asian countries. On a net basis South Asia is estimated to have suffered an income loss equivalent to some 9.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between January 2003 and...

South Asia has performed well over the past 25 years in reducing poverty, improving human development and increasing growth, but faster progress with poverty reduction will require a higher rate of growth. This book shows that the development performance is not a puzzle but largely explained by...

Webster’s Dictionary defines institution as “an established order, principle, law or usage as an element of organised society or of civilisation”. There are other interpretations of this term, depending upon the context for which the term is needed. For the purposes of the theme of this...

Sri Lanka's weak economic performance, although compounded by the civil war and budgetary imbalance, largely reflects the following: 1) a stop-and-go pattern of policy reform, because of political constraints - even though the results of reform were generally positive; 2) weak economic...

Using standard statistical growth analysis, the author shows that Pakistan's growth is the result of: (a) rapid capital accumulation. Pakistan's investment rate was relatively low but its fixed investment rate grew steadily in the 1970s, stabilizing at about 17 percent of the Gross Domestic...