Finance & Development articles from December 2006

Finance & Development archives from December 2006

Africa's upturn.(Editorial)
December 1, 2006... AFRICA has been through so many bad times that it may be hard to grasp that things are starting to go right. Countries long ravaged by conflict, HIV/AIDS, and a misuse of resources are seeing a revival of growth, supported by sound economic...

Corruption taking its toll on growth.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... In "Rethinking Growth" (March 2006), the authors describe six lessons that may help explain the stunted growth of many developing countries in the 1990s. I agree entirely with those lessons, but would add a seventh, which is no less important:...

A missed opportunity.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Congratulations on your fascinating issue "The Economics of Demographics" (September 2006), which is well crafted and most timely. Unfortunately, you missed the opportunity to put a much stronger focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Today, 31 of the 35...

Financial sector is key to Africa's growth.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... The article by Anne-Marie Gulde and Catherine Pattillo on financial deepening in Africa (June 2006) was a very interesting read. It is true that Africa could achieve higher growth through financial sector reform since we know that the financial...

Events in 2007.(Calendar)
December 1, 2006... January 13-26, Nairobi, Kenya World Social Forum January 24-28, Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum annual meeting April 9-10, Doha, Qatar Arab World Competitiveness Roundtable April 14-15, Washington, D.C. Spring Meetings of...

Paying a high price for polluted water.
December 1, 2006... The United Nations is pressing for a global action plan under the leadership of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial countries to help resolve a growing water and sanitation crisis that causes nearly two million child deaths every year. Across...

Teachers wanted.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The world will need 18 million new teachers in the coming decade in order to meet demand worldwide for primary education, with sub-Saharan Africa facing the greatest challenge, to boost its teacher force by 68 percent, according to United...

Remittance flows top $268 billion.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Recorded remittance flows have doubled in the past six years from $132 billion in 2000 to an estimated $268 billion this year, according to the World Bank. "Counting just recorded remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries, we...

Navigating uncharted waters.
December 1, 2006... MANY PEOPLE can take credit for the idea of a single currency in Europe, but one man in particular was responsible for making it a reality. Otmar Issing, the first chief economist of the European Central Bank (ECB), recalls the daunting...

Right time for Africa: Africa needs to build on its recent success to catch up.
December 1, 2006... AFRICA HAS COME a long way. For decades after independence, countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffered from civil strife and "stop-go economic policies that led to macroeconomic instability and high inflation. Roads, railways, ports, and...

Making aid work: the end of the cold war and progress toward a new aid architecture should make aid more effective.
December 1, 2006... Too much of the $300 million in aid to Africa since 1980 has vanished into a sinkhole of fraud, malfeasance and waste. --Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times, July 2005 ... Reality is broadly the opposite of current popular beliefs. Aid...

Bankable assets: Africa faces many obstacles in developing financial systems.
December 1, 2006... SOUND, deep, and efficient financial sectors are vital for high, sustained, private sector--led growth. But financial sectors in their current form pose major problems for the economies of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Insufficient access to credit...

Unblocking trade: to underpin growth, Africa needs to adopt a comprehensive approach to boosting trade.
December 1, 2006... DESPITE its improved economic performance in recent years, Africa is still lagging on trade. Since 1970, trade (exports plus imports) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has grown at three-fourths the world rate and only about half Asia's rate....

Beyond the ballot box: political reform and policy reform in contemporary Africa.
December 1, 2006... DEVELOPMENT economists and political scientists point to a variety of factors to explain variations in growth in developing countries--among them geographic location, availability of natural resources, and the quality of political and economic...

Taking care of business: creating a better business environment is crucial for bolstering growth in Africa.
December 1, 2006... IN MID-2006 the World Economic Forum held an Africa regional meeting in Cape Town. The opening panel featured three presidents: Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania. A little over a decade...

Enticing investors: to make a serious dent in poverty, Africa must attract more foreign capital.
December 1, 2006... THE NEARLY 750 million people who live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are among the world's poorest. To foster the economic growth required to create jobs, raise riving standards, and hasten development, SSA nations need to attract more foreign...

Out of the trap: how to improve financing for fragile states.
December 1, 2006... SINCE 2001, the donor community has identified fragile states as a specific group requiring its own development approach, especially in terms of financing, reforms, and capacity building. The term fragile states encompasses many situations and...

Spend now or save? Africa's oil producers, including Gabon, must decide how to manage oil revenues.
December 1, 2006... AFRICA'S oil-producing countries are benefiting from high global market prices for oil, raising the question of how they should manage their windfall revenues. Is it better to use the resources to tackle the many challenges they face, thereby...

The slowdown in global housing markets.
December 1, 2006... Following a period of sharp price rises and strong activity, housing markets in a number of industrial countries have slowed. The Netherlands was the first country to experience a slowdown, with the downturn starting in 2000. Australia and the...

Do current account deficits matter?
December 1, 2006... THE CURRENT ACCOUNT balance may seem to be an abstruse economic concept. But in countries that are spending a lot more abroad than they are taking in, the current account is the point at which international economics collides with political...

Getting real on health financing: will all the hype and money lead to results?
December 1, 2006... NEVER before have so much attention and money been devoted to improving the health of the world's poor. Celebrities have been using their star power to shine the spotlight on the grim health statistics of poor countries, and the international...

Globalization as virtual reality.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Daniel Cohen Globalization and Its Enemies MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006, 192 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Since neither the proponents nor the opponents of globalization are ready for a truce just yet, the pile of books on this...

Converting uncertainty into risk.(Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Hilton Root Capital and Collusion The Political Logic of Global Economic Development Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2006, 352 pp., $35.00 (cloth). Writing a book with sweeping aims about meta issues, such as the...

In their own words.(Conversations on Russia: Reform from Yeltsin to Putin)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Padma Desai Converstions on Russia Reform from Yeltsin to Putin Oxford University Press, New York, 2006, 383 pp., $45,00 (cloth). I In this book, Padma Desai, Professor at Columbia University and Russia specialist, presents interviews,...

Well prepared for an accident.(The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Fernando Cardoso The Accidental President of Brazil A Memoir Public Affairs, New York, 2006, 312 pp., $26.95 (cloth). There is a joke in Brazil that goes something like this: when Fernando Henrique Cardoso was a little boy, he set out...

The great game again? Countries seeking economic security by acquiring commodity producers risk violating good business sense.(STRAIGHT TALK)
December 1, 2006... SOME COMMENTATORS see the desperate search by countries to acquire commodity-producing firms in other (typically poor, developing) countries as a repeat of the Great Game--the tussle among powers like Britain and Russia for influence in the...

CEMAC.
December 1, 2006... For the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)--Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo--oil is the big story. The region has a common currency--the CFA franc, which is...