Brazil and South Korea: Two Tales Of a Middle-Income Trap

African countries were severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which quickly drove the continent into its worst recession in fifty years. According to the 2022 African Development Bank African Economic Outlook (AEO), real GDP declined by -1.5% in 2020 compared to growth of 3.3% in 2019. Africa has recovered quickly from the recession, but this has not translated into favorable debt prospects for many countries. To make a challenging situation even worse, the Russia/Ukraine crisis has ...

This Policy Brief examines the current banking crisis in the United States and its implications for Africa. Many studies have pointed out the main factors responsible for this crisis, including poor risk-management practices in the failed banks, the sector’s weak regulatory structure, and the failure of bank supervisors. However, a key factor that has contributed to the extent and speed of the crisis is the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) policy actions, including the elimination of re ...

Morocco has made important strides in reducing poverty in the last three decades, thanks in large part to trade and industrial policies aimed at durably inserting the country into world flows of goods, services, and cross-border investment. Since 1992, per capita incomes have tripled (in current US$), contributing to a threefold drop in the Kingdom’s poverty headcount. The country of 37 million features consistently as one of the better-performing and more stable economies in the No ...

The energy and ecological transition (EET) is inevitable, desirable, and now accepted worldwide. But how this transition will be financed remains highly uncertain. This Policy Paper analyzes the financing needs and reviews the different possible financial channels. Some avenues have already been launched, and procedures and instruments are being put in place, but all of this remains insufficient. Many solutions will have to be combined, and these will require financial innovations, ...

The broad thrust of Morocco’s trade and industrial policies over the last thirty years has been to anchor Morocco into world flows of goods, services, and cross-border investment. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising international prices, and a complex geopolitical environment, Moroccans continue to derive significant benefits from their economy’s openness. These include improved consumer choice and welfare, the growing insertion of Moroccan firms into cross ...

The current banking crisis in the United States began with the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) run in March 2023 and was followed by other bank failures, raising concerns about the health and stability of the financial sector. This Policy Paper traces the root causes of these bank failures and examines the U.S. monetary policy decisions during this period. These bank failures were caused by the poor risk management practices of the failed banks, the sector’s weak regulatory structure, and ...

Earlier this month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told congressional leaders that the government could run out of cash as early as June 1, if the debt ceiling is not raised in time. In January, the Treasury reached the current legally established ceiling in nominal terms ($31.46 trillion). The funds currently available to make government payment flows tend to exhaust by the end of this month. According to the Treasury Department: “Failing to increase the debt limit would ha ...