State-owned financial institutions (SOFIs) are often associated with poor corporate governance, political interference, crowding out of private sector resources, higher non-performing loans (NPLs…

Gunhild Berg, Mario Guadamillas |

South Asia has a rich history of informal foreign exchange markets such as the well-known Hundi and Hawala . These informal networks play a significant role in traditional societies and informal…

Zoe Leiyu Xie, Xiao'ou Zhu |

South Asia, battered by three years of upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic and spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, faces a combination of good and bad news for its economies. On the…

Jiemin Ren, Zoe Leiyu Xie |

In a striking example, Albania has shown how the tourism sector can drive economic development. Following the country’s turbulent economic and political transition in the 1990s, tourism was…

Raha Shahidsaless, Fernando Blanco, Stefka Slavova, Laureta Qorlazja |

Learn more about the potential of the sovereign green, social and sustainability bond market to mobilize private capital.

Farah Imrana Hussain, Helena Dill, Banu Turhan Kayaalp |

The 4th World Bank Tax Conference exposed the magnitude of the challenge to build equitable tax systems via policies that improve compliance of the very wealthy. This blog highlights a summary of…

Pierre Bachas, Chiara Bronchi, Thiago Scot, Claudia Vargas |

In this blog, we highlight two projects that leveraged data-driven policymaking processes and simulations.

Kerina Wang, KCP Program Management Unit (KCP PMU) |

As the gusts of the COVID-19 pandemic quieten, South Asian economies, left fragile and uneven in their recovery, are facing renewed headwinds: high inflation, rising fiscal deficits, and…

Zoe Leiyu Xie, Xiao'ou Zhu |

Turkey is on a path towards a comprehensive, fully accountable system of public financial management which can help ensure that public resources are used strategically, efficiently and effectively…

Seda Aroymak, Zeynep Lalik |