South Asia Economic Update October, 2020

South Asia Economic Update October, 2020 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464816409
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
The COVID-19 pandemic, which is still impacting South Asia, has temporarily brought the region to a near standstill. Governments proactively stabilized activity through monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and supportive financial regulation, but the situation is fragile amid weak buffers and exhausted policy tools. South Asia’s GDP is expected to contract 7.7 percent this year, by far the largest decline on record, but uncertainty around the forecast is substantial. The informal economy in South Asia has been hit hard. Many unorganized workers, self-employed people and microenterprises have experienced a large drop in earnings as the service sectors that were affected most by the lockdowns are dominated by informality. Informal workers and firms tend to have inadequate mechanisms for coping with short-term demand and supply interruptions due to limited savings and constrained access to finance. While the poor have suffered severely during the crisis, many informal workers in the middle of the income distribution have experienced the greatest drop in earnings. Most of them are not covered by social insurance. The crisis lays bare complicated structural problems in the informal sector that need to be addressed.

South Asia Economic Update October, 2020

South Asia Economic Update October, 2020 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464816409
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Get Book Here

Book Description
The COVID-19 pandemic, which is still impacting South Asia, has temporarily brought the region to a near standstill. Governments proactively stabilized activity through monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and supportive financial regulation, but the situation is fragile amid weak buffers and exhausted policy tools. South Asia’s GDP is expected to contract 7.7 percent this year, by far the largest decline on record, but uncertainty around the forecast is substantial. The informal economy in South Asia has been hit hard. Many unorganized workers, self-employed people and microenterprises have experienced a large drop in earnings as the service sectors that were affected most by the lockdowns are dominated by informality. Informal workers and firms tend to have inadequate mechanisms for coping with short-term demand and supply interruptions due to limited savings and constrained access to finance. While the poor have suffered severely during the crisis, many informal workers in the middle of the income distribution have experienced the greatest drop in earnings. Most of them are not covered by social insurance. The crisis lays bare complicated structural problems in the informal sector that need to be addressed.

Asian Development Outlook 2020

Asian Development Outlook 2020 PDF Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
ISBN: 9292621564
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 737

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Book Description
After a disappointing 2019, growth prospects in developing Asia have worsened under the impact of the current health crisis. Signs of incipient recovery near the turn of this year were quickly overthrown as COVID-19 broke out in January 2020 in the region’s largest economy and subsequently expanded into a global pandemic. Disruption to regional and global supply chains, trade, and tourism, and the continued spread of the outbreak, leave the region reeling under massive economic shocks and financial turmoil. Across Asia, the authorities are responding with policies to contain the outbreak, facilitate medical interventions, and support vulnerable businesses and households. Assuming that the outbreak is contained this year, growth is expected to recover in 2021. Especially to face down fundamental threats such as the current medical emergency, innovation is critical to growth and development. As some economies in developing Asia challenge the innovation frontier, many others lag. More and better innovation is needed in the region to sustain growth that is more inclusive and environmentally sustainable. Five key drivers of innovation are sound education, productive entrepreneurship, high-quality institutions, efficient financial systems, and dynamic cities that excite knowledge exchange. The journey to creating an innovative society takes long-term commitment and hard work.

Asian Development Outlook 2020 Update

Asian Development Outlook 2020 Update PDF Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
ISBN: 9292623621
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Developing Asia has suffered as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. Growth, trade, and tourism collapsed in 2020, leading to the region’s first economic contraction in nearly 6 decades. Governments across Asia acted quickly to contain the virus and its economic effects, and signs of bottoming out have now appeared. Inflation remains benign, constrained by depressed demand and declining food prices. A prolonged pandemic is the primary downside risk to the outlook. Persistent or renewed outbreaks and a return to stringent containment could possibly derail the recovery and trigger financial turmoil. Recovery depends on measures to address the health crisis and on continued policy support. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of wellness, both physical and mental. Wellness—the pursuit of holistic health and well-being—is a component of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. This report evaluates the state of wellness in Asia, documents how the wellness economy is a large and growing part of the region’s economy, and discusses how policy makers can promote wellness by creating healthy living environments, encouraging physical activity and healthy diets, and enhancing workplace wellness.

Global Economic Prospects, June 2020

Global Economic Prospects, June 2020 PDF Author: World Bank Group
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464815801
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has, with alarming speed, dealt a heavy blow to an already-weak global economy, which is expected to slide into its deepest recession since the second world war, despite unprecedented policy support. The global recession would be deeper if countries take longer to bring the pandemic under control, if financial stress triggers defaults, or if there are protracted effects on households and firms. Economic disruptions are likely to be more severe and protracted in emerging market and developing economies with larger domestic outbreaks and weaker medical care systems; greater exposure to international spillovers through trade, tourism, and commodity and financial markets; weaker macroeconomic frameworks; and more pervasive informality and poverty. Beyond the current steep economic contraction, the pandemic is likely to leave lasting scars on the global economy by undermining consumer and investor confidence, human capital, and global value chains. Being mostly a reflection of the recent plunge in global energy demand, low oil prices are unlikely to provide much of a boost to global growth in the near term. While policymakers' immediate priorities are to address the health crisis and moderate the short-term economic losses, the likely long-term consequences of the pandemic highlight the need to forcefully undertake comprehensive reform programs to improve the fundamental drivers of economic growth, once the crisis abates. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). The January edition includes in-depth analyses of topical policy challenges faced by these economies, while the June edition contains shorter analytical pieces.

East Asia and Pacific Economic Update October 2020

East Asia and Pacific Economic Update October 2020 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464816417
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
Conditions in the region and the rest of the world have changed dramatically since the April 2020 Regional Economic Update (World Bank 2020a). In addition to still unfolding unprecedented health crisis, the world is now experiencing the deepest global recession since the Second World War (World Bank 2020b). The global economy is projected to contract by 5.2 percent this year, with output in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) shrinking by 2.5 percent—the first contraction in at least sixty years. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant loss of life and has had severe economic effects on the developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. Many governments have responded to the pandemic-induced shock with sizable fiscal and monetary support. Although subject to significant uncertainty, regional growth is expected to rebound to [6.6 percent] in 2021 as the pandemic subsides, remaining restrictions are lifted, and global demand recovers. The pandemicinduced crisis will likely hit hardest the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities, [putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further out of reach]. The dynamics of the shock mean that in 2020 the region will experience the widest output gaps in decades. Absent of sift and effective actions, the pandemic will slow potential growth in the region by weakening investment, human capital, and the supply chains that have been an important conduit for productivity gains over the past decade.

Green Finance Strategies for Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery in Southeast Asia

Green Finance Strategies for Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery in Southeast Asia PDF Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
ISBN: 9292623818
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has seen governments across developing Asia move significant amounts of capital into relief efforts that have saved countless lives and livelihoods. But emerging economic recovery packages must not upset the sensitive balance between economic growth and the region’s natural capital. Many global thinkers are advocating the critical role of green infrastructure in supporting economic growth and livelihoods, while safeguarding the Paris Agreement targets. This publication examines green and innovative finance mechanisms that can be incorporated into government recovery strategies to incentivize green infrastructure investment. These mechanisms can play a key role in catalyzing much-needed funds from private capital for a green and sustainable regional recovery.

Doing Business 2020

Doing Business 2020 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464814414
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in a series of annual studies investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. It provides quantitative indicators covering 12 areas of the business environment in 190 economies. The goal of the Doing Business series is to provide objective data for use by governments in designing sound business regulatory policies and to encourage research on the important dimensions of the regulatory environment for firms.

Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2019

Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2019 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464815062
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
The share of immigrants in Western and Eastern Europe has increased rapidly over the past four decades. Today, one of every three immigrants in the world goes to Europe. Furthermore, although globally only one-third of migration takes place within regions, intraregional migration is especially high within Europe and Central Asia, with 80 percent of the region's emigrants choosing to move to other countries in the region. In high-income destination countries, migrants are often blamed for high unemployment and declining social services. There are also widespread concerns about brain drain in the migrant sending countries of Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and Central Asia. This update focuses on the design of policies on labor mobility and presents the trends, determinants, and impacts of low- and high-skilled labor.

World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2022

World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2022 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464819211
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
East Asia and the Pacific does not so far conform to the current narrative of stagflation. The region, with some exceptions, is growing faster and has lower inflation than other regions. And prospects for several countries have improved, as they bounced back from the distress of the Delta wave in a still buoyant global economy. But this rosy picture must not obscure four impediments to inclusive and sustainable growth: disease, deceleration, debt, and distortions. In particular, current policies to contain inflation and debt are distorting the markets for food, fuel and finance in ways that could compromise development goals. In each case, more efficient measures could address current difficulties without undermining longer term objectives.

World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, Spring 2021

World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, Spring 2021 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464817022
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
A year after the first case was confirmed in Wuhan COVID-19 is proving hard to suppress even, while the emergence of more transmissible variants of the variant poses new challenges to the containment of the disease globally. The economies of the region began to bounce back in the second half of 2020. However, only China and Vietnam have followed a V-shape recovery path with output surpassing pre-COVID-19 levels. Most of the other countries have not seen a full-fledged recovery in terms of either output or growth momentum. Economic performance across countries continues to depend on (i) the efficiency with which the virus is contained; (ii) the ability to take advantage of the revival in international goods trade; and (iii) the capacity of governments to provide fiscal and monetary support. China and Vietnam are expected to enjoy strong growth in 2021, whereas other economies in the region will grow more gradually. Many economies, especially in the Pacific islands are not expected to reach pre-COVID-19 levels of output until 2022 or later. Governments in the region need to work cooperatively to address three key issues: (i) a regional and global distribution of vaccines that minimizes the risk of a continued spread of COVID-19 and its variants; (ii) continue to provide economic support to their economies while carefully evaluating the trade-offs between the need for further stimulus and debt sustainability; and (iii) enact policies and prioritize investments that protect against climate risk to ensure sustainable economic growth.