Prospects Weekly: European Stability Mechanism (ESM)/Fiscal Pact laws remove significant hurdles
Trade
Sweetening Kenya’s future – The challenges of the sugar industry
Do you ever wonder, looking at the food in your plate, where it has come from and who produced it?
Surely you have thought about what explains its price on the shelf! Kenyans love sugar, which they use liberally in their tea: on average each Kenyan consumes 400 grams of sugar per week, much more than their Tanzanian neighbors who consume approximately 230 grams. In Africa, only the residents of Swaziland and South Africa have a sweeter tooth.
Globally, 70 percent of the sugar that is produced is consumed in the same country and only 30 percent is exported. In principle this is good for customers in sugar-producing countries, as long as the supply is sufficient to keep prices low. In Kenya, this is not the case: there are occasional sugar shortages and, when they can be anticipated, prices rise to extraordinary levels.
Putting Nature at the Heart of Economic Decisions
Read this post in Français
To put nature at the heart of economic decisions, government, the private sector & the conservation community must reach across the aisle.
Look around the world, and you’ll see abundant reasons to worry about nature and its capacity to sustain us. Over 60 percent of ecosystems are in worse shape now than 50 years ago; 85 percent of ocean fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted; half of all wetlands have been destroyed since 1900; and climate change is changing everything.
But at the same time, if you look carefully, there are reasons for cautious optimism.
- Tags:
- The World Region
- South Asia
- Middle East and North Africa
- Latin America & Caribbean
- Europe and Central Asia
- East Asia and Pacific
- Africa
- Law and Regulation
- Trade
- Governance
- Environment
- Education
- Culture and Development
- Communities and Human Settlements
- Agriculture and Rural Development
- Oceans
- mining
- ecosystems
- biodiversity
Join us to discuss Exports in Bangladesh!
Today, we're launching an online discussion on Exports in Bangladesh at the World Bank Bangladesh facebook page. Through the online discussion, we hope to hear from YOU on how Bangladesh can accelerate and diversify exports in order to achieve its aim of becoming a Middle Income Country.
Dr. Sanjay Kathuria, Lead Economist, World Bank Bangladesh is answering your questions and moderating the discussion. Let us know what you think!
What? Exports in Bangladesh: How can Bangladesh accelerate and diversify exports?
When? Today, August 07, 2012 (12:00 AM – 11:59 PM Bangladesh time)
Where? www.facebook.com/worldbankbangladesh
Trade and Climate Change: Handle with Care
Over the past several decades international trade has expanded dramatically. Today, the volume of world trade is nearly 32 times greater than its level in 1950, and the ratio of merchandise trade to global GDP has increased to more than 50 percent, up from less than 20 percent just half a century earlier.
- Tags:
- Environment
- Trade
Prospects Weekly: Renewed concerns earlier in the week about the Greek bail-out plan
| Renewed concerns earlier in the week about the Greek bail-out plan and the possibility of a credit rating downgrade for several European economies drove borrowing costs up. The European Central Bank’s (ECB) announcement on Thursday to defend the Euro has helped ease concerns somewhat. |
- Tags:
- Brazil
- China
- Egypt, Arab Republic of
- Greece
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Peru
- Philippines
- South Africa
- Tunisia
- Uruguay
- Vietnam
- Africa
- East Asia and Pacific
- Europe and Central Asia
- Latin America & Caribbean
- Middle East and North Africa
- Financial Sector
- Trade
- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth
- tourism in devloping countries
- interest rates
- Euro area banking crisis
Latin America: are we forever at the mercy of high oil prices?
También disponible en español
A few weeks ago a rare storm event known as "Derecho" ravaged the Washington, DC area, claiming many lives and leaving 1.3 million homes and business without electricity. My house was unfortunately among those hit hard by the power outage and in an attempt to cope with the 90F+ temperatures unleashed by the storm, we moved down to the basement -- generally, the coolest part of the house.
For the first few days the novelty was fun for the kids, but as the days wore on, frustration grew, in part because we had no idea when the power would come back on.
Prospects Weekly: Adverse weather conditions are leading to a surge in food commodity prices
| Adverse weather conditions are pushing some food commodity prices to levels not seen since the 2007/08 price spike. Nonetheless, weakening global demand has pushed down headline inflation in most regions. |
Prospects Daily: European shares and euro continue to slump
Important developments today:
1. European shares and euro continue to slump as Moody’s cuts the rating outlook for Germany, the Netherland, and Luxembourg
2. Output in the Euro Area contracts for the sixth month in July
Prospects Daily: Crude oil prices fall from 9-week high
Important developments today:
1. Crude oil prices fall from 9-week high
2. German producer price inflation falls to lowest in two years
Facilitating Trade, Facilitating Development
In 2001, trade representatives from around the world first arrived in Doha, the capital of tiny Qatar, for the latest round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. The goal was ambitious: work to reduce trade barriers, while ensuring that developing countries secure their fair share of global trade growth.
Engaging the Future: Conversations with Global Youth
It is hard to talk about South Asia without invoking its demographics. The region will contribute nearly 40 percent of the growth in the world’s working age (15-64) population, and will need to add a staggering 1 to 1.2 million new entrants to the labor market every month for the next two decades. Absorbing the influx of youth into the labor force is one of South Asia’s core challenges. But while economists grapple with employment statistics and economic policy, jobs are created at the grassroots. Entrepreneurship is the spark that lights the fire, and the engine that generates opportunities in local communities.
If Kenya was a member of the Euro zone – Lessons in managing debt sustainably
As European leaders convened in Brussels to find solutions—yet again!—to the debt crisis in the Euro zone, Kenyans are witnessing the old continent’s woes with a mix of surprise and self-satisfaction.
If only Greece had managed its debt like Kenya, Europe would be in a much better shape today. Greece’s debt would be standing at 45 percent of GDP, less than a third of what it actually is. Recent global economic history would need to be rewritten and Europe’s sick nation would be a macroeconomic success, with the luxury of deciding how to spend its resources well, rather than scrambling to mobilize them.
Realizing India’s Potential
Yesterday, I discussed India’s incredible economic transformation over the last two decades and some of the challenges that the country is currently facing. So, what can India do to reduce the impact of global uncertainty and improve growth performance and boost investor confidence?
India’s firepower to respond to a crisis with traditional monetary and fiscal stimulus is much weaker now than prior to the 2008 crisis. Fiscal space for additional spending is severely constrained in light of continued high deficits. Room for monetary policy easing is modest in light of continued high inflation, and still low real interest rates. Moreover, when investor confidence is at a low ebb as it is in India, easing monetary policy would be tantamount to “pushing on a string.”
Keeping India’s Promise Alive
India has been a beacon to the world on how a thriving and vibrant democracy can transform itself into an economic powerhouse. The metamorphosis that took place in the Indian economy after the reforms of the early 1990s is nothing short of spectacular. The Indian economy was transformed into a dynamo of innovation and diversification. This fundamental transformation unlocked two decades of explosive growth in which poverty rates fell by nearly 20 percent, exports as a share of GDP increased nearly five-fold, and standards of living increased by a factor of almost four. This trajectory received but a glancing blow from the 2008 global financial crisis—this resilience was a testimonial to the benefits of the economic reforms of the previous 15 years.
Challenges to India’s Growth
But now, India’s economy once again faces formidable challenges and the fear is that it is considerably less well placed to deal with these challenges than at any time over the past two decades. The global economy is facing a new phase of the crisis characterized by an extreme bout of uncertainty, risk aversion and volatility, this time originating in the Euro Area. Some skeptics have recently questioned: Will India weather this storm as well as it did in 2008-09 and will the story of “Incredible India” remain credible?