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Investors are failing African entrepreneurs — it’s time for a change

Tuesday 2nd of March 2021

Despite the global economic slowdown caused by COVID-19, the case for investing in Africa is stronger than ever. Africa will remain a competitive investment destination for decades to come because of its improving relative risk profiles, regional integration and strong economic fundamentals.
IMF Head: How governments can prevent widening inequality

Tuesday 2nd of March 2021

As G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet virtually this week, the world continues to climb back from the worst recession in peacetime since the Great Depression.
The economies that are home to the poorest billions of people need to grow if we want global poverty to decline

Friday 26th of February 2021

The huge majority of the world today is very poor. About 85% of the world live on less than $30 per day and 63% live on less than $10 per day.
Can you put a price on peace? This study says you can

Thursday 18th of February 2021

What is the price of peace?
This is what working from home might mean for GDP and inequality

Thursday 18th of February 2021

Containing Covid-19 has required more people to work from home, accelerating the trend towards telecommuting. This column uses a general equilibrium model to analyse the long-term effects of this trend, and finds that it may prove to be a mixed blessing. Working from home saves time that would be spent commuting but deprives firms of the benefits from information and knowledge spillovers. Firms use less office space, but workers require more space at home. Overall, GDP will likely be maximised when working from home occurs one or two days per week.
How do ‘trading frenzies’ like GameStop affect the real economy? An expert explains

Wednesday 17th of February 2021

The recent rallies and volatility in the stocks of video game retailer GameStop and movie theater chain AMC can be linked to a term known as “frenzied trading,” according to Itay Goldstein, Wharton professor of finance and economics who co-authored a research paper in 2013 on that subject with Emre Ozdenoren, a professor of economics at London Business School, and Kathy Yuan, finance professor at the London School of Economics.
Latin America and the Caribbean’s economic recovery from COVID-19 in 3 charts

Tuesday 16th of February 2021

Latin America and Caribbean economies managed to bounce back from COVID-19’s initial economic devastation earlier in 2020. But the pandemic’s resurgence towards the end of the year threatens to thwart an uneven recovery and add to the steep social and human costs.
From ocean taxes to family planning, review flags ways to protect nature

Monday 15th of February 2021

From taxing use of the oceans to pay for forest protection, to boosting family planning in developing nations, there are ways to catalyse shifts in behaviour and funding to rescue nature, the author of a flagship study on biodiversity said.
This chart shows how COVID-19 has affected the U.S. labour force

Monday 15th of February 2021

In his first network interview since his inauguration, President Joe Biden told CBS that he considers the exit of more than a million women from the U.S. labor force in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency.
Why Gulf economies need a transformed role for the state

Thursday 11th of February 2021

Gulf governments responded quickly and decisively to the shock of the pandemic with lockdowns among the toughest in the world, according to the Oxford Stringency Index, and as cases dropped, only the UAE has suffered a significant resurgence so far.
Lessons from Africa on climate change adaptation

Wednesday 10th of February 2021

The Earth’s changing climate is already having major consequences for the environment and society. While these impacts highlight the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they also show that communities around the world will need to adapt to manage the changes around them.
This is the state of economic inclusion in 2021

Wednesday 10th of February 2021

Governments and development partners have long used economic inclusion programs as part of their anti-poverty efforts. These interventions are key to helping the poorest and vulnerable people escape the cycle of poverty by boosting their incomes and assets, and helping them gain productive employment and build sustainable livelihoods. However, there lacks an organized effort to gather evidence of impact, discussions of efficacy, cost and trade-offs, and feasibility to scale up such programs at the global level.
The pre-pandemic debt landscape – and why it matters

Tuesday 9th of February 2021

Many countries entered the pandemic with elevated debt levels. Our new update of the IMF’s Global Debt Database shows that global debt—public plus private—reached $197 trillion in 2019, up by $9 trillion from the previous year. This substantial debt created challenges for countries that faced a debt surge in 2020, as economic activity collapsed and governments acted swiftly to provide support during the pandemic.
Here’s how governments can drive a sustainable recovery from COVID-19

Monday 8th of February 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating in many countries and uncertainty is unusually high. Decisive government actions are necessary to ensure swift and extensive vaccine rollouts, protect the most vulnerable households and otherwise viable firms, and foster a durable and inclusive recovery.
Programmes bring help to 92 million people in extreme poverty

Thursday 4th of February 2021

Targeted efforts to improve the income of the world’s poorest households are benefiting nearly 92 million people across 75 countries, according to a World Bank study released on Tuesday.
How to measure progress in building a sustainable future

Wednesday 27th of January 2021

2021 doesn’t yet feel that much different from 2020. Infection rates are spiking, healthcare systems are buckling, and people are suffering. This will be another difficult year but what will distinguish this year from last, isn’t just the hope and promise of a vaccine – which is certainly welcome – it is the recognized sense of urgency across all sectors of society to put things on the right track for future generations.
From COVID-19 to Brexit, this is how uncertainty affects the global economy

Monday 25th of January 2021

Global uncertainty reached unprecedented levels at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak and remains elevated. The World Uncertainty Index—a quarterly measure of global economic and policy uncertainty covering 143 countries—shows that although uncertainty has come down by about 60 percent from the peak observed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, it remains about 50 percent above its historical average during the 1996–2010 period.
What changes to economic systems will 2021 bring? Here’s what business leaders say

Sunday 24th of January 2021

With more than 2 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide and rising, getting the virus under control is a top priority for 2021.
Davos Agenda: What you need to know about the global economy

Sunday 24th of January 2021

In May, the world’s top risk professionals identified “prolonged recession of the global economy” as the most feared risk of COVID-19.
5 charts on the future of the global economy

Friday 22nd of January 2021

With the COVID-19 pandemic still looming, global economic activity could unfold any number of ways this year. Depending on the spread or containment of COVID-19, the pace of vaccine dissemination over the next two years, and the level of global financial stress, three alternative outcomes to the baseline forecast in the January 2021 Global Economic Prospects are possible.
These 8 charts show how the global economy is coping with COVID-19

Thursday 14th of January 2021

In November 2020, stock markets around the world rallied after initial results for the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech showed the jab to be up to 95% effective, with the FTSE 100 jumping 5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 5.6% in opening trade.
China to leapfrog U.S. as world’s biggest economy by 2028 – think tank

Monday 11th of January 2021

China will overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries from the COVID-19 pandemic, a think tank said.
What Hong Kong and Singapore can teach Africa on how to become an economic powerhouse

Tuesday 5th of January 2021

Africa is the future and the future is African. More than a thought, this highlights Africa’s tremendous potential to advance its development. With the youngest population globally, African people will represent one-fifth of the world population by 2030. This population represents both a tremendous human capital stock and a large consumer market.
Are we experiencing a K shaped recovery from COVID-19?

Tuesday 22nd of December 2020

Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve heard about different recovery curves: Z-shaped recovery (optimistic: downturn, bounces back to pre-crisis growth), V-shaped (optimistic: steep decline, quick recovery), U-shaped (somewhat pessimistic: period between decline and recovery), W-shaped (pessimistic: recovery, second decline), and L-shaped (most pessimistic: extended downturn).