The Pacific island region has considerable potential for development, especially in the areas of tourism, fisheries, forestry, mining, and agriculture. However, these countries face many challenges to developing their economies and raising living standards, including their small size, distance from major markets, and vulnerability to natural disasters. The first half of this book provides an assessment of regional issues. The second half includes country-specific chapters, which provide an ov...

This book, by Christopher Browne with Douglas A. Scott, reviews the economic progress that Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Western Samoa have made since independence. An overview of the region examines development strategies, external economic relations, the role of the private sector, and the evolution of financial structures. Seven country studies describe the main characteristics of each economy, analyze performance over the past decade, and provide d...

The World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update 2010, Volume I, is the World Bank's comprehensive, twice-yearly review of the region's economies. In this edition, the Bank finds that, largely thanks to China, the region's output, exports, and employment have mostly returned to the levels they were at before the crisis. And while countries can grow rapidly in the next decade even in a slower world economy, they need to return to their structural reform agendas with renewed ...

The World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update 2010 Volume 2 is the latest edition of the comprehensive twice-yearly review of the region's economies prepared by the East Asia and Pacific region of the World Bank. Entitled "Robust Recovery Rising Risks" this Update notes that output and trade flows have recovered to above pre-crisis levels throughout developing East Asia. Confidence is on the rise and private sector investment is once again driving growth.Yet greater confidence in ...

The World Bank South Asia Economic Update 2010 is the World Bank's comprehensive review of the region's economies. In this first pilot edition, the Bank finds that the region experienced the least reduction in growth during the crisis compared to other developing regions, a result of resilient remittances and exports. It is now rebounding back to strong growth at nearly precrisis levels, based on domestic demand, consumption, and strong  policy support, driving greater optimism. Gi...

In 1985, Tanzania was in severe economic distress, plagued by widespread shortages and high inflation. Agricultural production, the mainstay of the economy, had been declining steadily since the 1970s. Exports of cash crops, which traditionally accounted for the bulk of foreign exchange earnings, had fallen by half between 1970 and 1985. A foreign exchange shortage led to a precipitous drop in imports, which in turn caused a crisis in the manufacturing sector, which lacked raw materials an...

This study indentifies some of the taxation problems most frequently encountered by Fund member countries in sub-Saharan Africa and seeks solutions that may be useful to either the region as a whole or to groups of countries in the region.

One of the principal aims of the effort to integrate the economies of the 16 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is to expand intra-Community trade. This objective is to be achieved partly through the elimination of quantitive and other restrictions on trade.

A call-to-arms from Nobel Prize–winning economist and best-selling author Paul Krugman.The Great Recession is more than four years old—and counting. Yet, as Paul Krugman points out in this powerful volley, "Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge—all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all—remain in a state of intense pain."How bad have things gotten? How did we get stuck in what now can only be called a depression? And above all, how...

This book provides an analysis of the global economic crisis from an Asian perspective. It examines the impacts of the policy measures adopted, the remaining challenges in rebalancing the global economy, the next steps in regional economic integration in Asia, and issues related to reform of the international financial architecture.