Finance & Development articles from June 2007

Finance & Development archives from June 2007

A woman's touch.(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... A HOT topic at summits of global leaders over the past few years has been how the global community is doing in its efforts to meet the eight 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)--especially those that deal with poverty, hunger, health,...

The merits of private equity.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Like virtually everyone who tracks and analyzes financial flows to developing countries, the authors of the otherwise excellent analysis in the F&D article, "Financial Globalization, Beyond the Blame Game" (March 2007), completely ignore...

Building a solid foundation.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I was pleased to read "Africa: Making Its Move" (December 2006). I am convinced that, one day, Africa will make its move. But it won't be as easy as people think. Africa is developing through a series of short-sighted solutions, not on the...

Deciding how to spend the oil windfall.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... The F&D article "Spend Now or Save?" (December 2006), by Paul Toungui, raises a question that has greatly concerned many leaders in African countries whose economies are dependent on windfall revenues from oil. The author suggests that...

Hunger is the real problem.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... In your recent issue on Africa (December 2006), you overlooked two important issues. When it comes to the encouragement of development, eradicating hunger and making sure that poor people's voices are heard are key to addressing all the other...

Where the grass is greener.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... In "In Brief" in the December 2006 issue of F&D, the item on remittance flows quotes Dilip Ratha as saying that remittances are the largest source of external financing for developing countries. This statement obscures a severe socioeconomic...

Fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... In "Making Aid Work" (September 2005), the author mentions the need to increase financial aid to effectively combat the spread of HIV/MDS in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a praise-worthy undertaking. Unfortunately, the results have so far been...

Events in 2007.(Calendar)
June 1, 2007... July 9-11, Brussels, Belgium International Migration and Development, First Global Forum August 2-3, Coolum, Australia 14th APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting September 20, New York, USA G-8 Foreign Affairs Ministers' Meeting...

Elusive MDGs.(Unired nation's Millennium Development Goals gives report)
June 1, 2007... With seven years gone and eight to go, the global community has little to celebrate. In 2000, with great fanfare, world leaders pledged to boost living standards by achieving eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)--covering poverty, health,...

Missing by a long shot.(organizatons must help fragile state to upcome from poverty)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The largest "MDG deficit" is in states with lax law and order, stymied by weak institutions and corruption, and often racked by civil conflict. With 9 percent of the developing world's population--nearly 500 million people---these fragile...

IMF adopts new fiscal transparency code.(International Monetary Fund revises the fiscal policy )
June 1, 2007... The IMF approved on May 8 a new fiscal transparency code that introduces nine new "good practices" governments should follow to promote better-informed public debate about how they tax and spend. The IMF's revised Code of Good Practices on...

A bigger club.(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calls countries to become it's member)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is to start talks with Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia, and Slovenia that could lead to the five countries joining the 30-member group of advanced industrial economies. The...

Staying warm in Siberia.(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development gives loan for housing )(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending a municipality in Siberia, Russia, 20 million euros ($26.8 million) to replace public housing that cannot handle the region's seven-month, -50 degree winters. The bank's loan will...

Running short.(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports on emergency assistance for food supply)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Thirty-three countries, most of them in Africa, will need emergency assistance to support their food supply this year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts. The FAO's Crop Prospects and Food Situation report says...

Smart economics: more needs to be done to promote the economic power of women.(united nation's Millennium Development Goals for male- female equality)
June 1, 2007... WITH just eight years remaining to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the global community is focused on what's being done to halve poverty from 1990 levels by the target date of 2015 and to meet several other objectives, including...

Budgeting with women in mind: why using the budget to empower women makes good economic sense.
June 1, 2007... WHEN leaders in developed and developing countries alike ponder ways to boost growth, reduce inequality, and improve living standards, the enduring battle of the sexes is most likely the last thing on their minds. But they might want to think...

Getting all girls into school: new ways are needed to educate "excluded girls" in developing countries.
June 1, 2007... SINCE 1960, primary school enrollment rates in the developing world have risen steeply for boys and girls, with girls' participation converging with that of boys in most countries. Yet UNESCO (2006) recently estimated that 43 million school-age...

Globalization of labor.(PICTURE THIS)(increase in labor supply due to globalization)
June 1, 2007... OVER the past two decades, labor has become increasingly globalized. The integration of China, India, and the former Eastern bloc into the world economy, together with population growth, has led to an estimated fourfold increase in the...

Asia ten years after: a decade after the Asian financial crisis, the region is growing rapidly but still has a long to-do list.(reports of global economy )
June 1, 2007... TEN years ago, the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 began to unfold. Few countries in the region were left untouched, and the aftereffects reverberated across the globe. A decade later, Asia shines in the global economic landscape, and its...

Asia's decade of transformation.(POINT OF VIEW)(developemtn of asian countries in global economy)
June 1, 2007... IN retrospect, the Asian crisis 10 years ago marked not a halt but the start of a greater role for Asia in the global economy. Since the 1997 crisis, Asian countries have seized the opportunity to undertake significant restructuring and reforms...

Korea: in search of a new compact.(POINT OF VIEW)(International Monetary Fund grants loan to korea for stabalizing from financial crises)
June 1, 2007... BACK in 1997, the Asian financial crisis seemed like it was primarily a liquidity problem--at least in Korea, where the monetary authority had to struggle by the hour to prevent foreign exchange reserves from drying up, until Korea was saved by...

Underutilized capital: if the investment bias toward inefficient state enterprises ended, China could increase living standards substantially without sacrificing growth.
June 1, 2007... CHINA is growing at such a breakneck speed that it may appear superfluous to suggest how to do better. The Chinese growth is in large part driven by capital accumulation and exports. The country's investment-to-GDP ratio has been high and...

Getting together: the new partnership between China and Africa for aid and trade.
June 1, 2007... CHINA is itself a developing country, but it is also fast becoming a major player in the development of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Its brisk growth and resulting hunger for oil and other commodities has propelled trade with resource-rich Africa,...

Connecting Africa and Asia: improved Asian market access can boost Africa's exports, but Africa needs domestic reforms to fully capture the economic benefits.
June 1, 2007... THE recent boom in developing country commerce between Africa and Asia epitomizes the explosion of South-South trade. These trade flows are driven by the burgeoning middle classes in Asia's emerging economic giants--China and India--whose...

Making remittances work for Africa: if handled well, migrant transfers can reduce poverty and connect small savers to the formal financial sector.
June 1, 2007... REMITTANCES flowing into developing countries are attracting increasing attention because of their rising volume and their impact on recipient countries. In 2005, they totaled $188 billion--twice the amount of official assistance developing...

Microfinance: banking for the poor.(influence of services of microfinance institutions on economic development)
June 1, 2007... MUFIYA Khatoon--a poor, illiterate young woman in rural Bangladesh--used to spend her days begging for a few ounces of rice to feed her children. She desperately wanted a livelihood, but lacked the funds to start a small business, and there was...

A government's net worth: a new tool in surveillance, the public sector balance sheet, can help diagnose vulnerabilities that are not immediately visible in the budget.
June 1, 2007... WITH the economic crises of the 1990s, economists were reminded that they could no longer rely solely on a country's so-called flow variables (among them revenues, expenditures, imports, exports, and borrowing) as a guide to economic...

Getting spending right: Latin America needs to reform public spending to make it more efficient, better help the poor, and address infrastructure bottlenecks.
June 1, 2007... LATIN America's recent economic performance has been strong. The region is in the midst of its most vigorous expansion since the 1970s, with average growth of more than 5 percent over the past three years. Inflation has also declined to an...

Harnessing the market.(Regulating Infrastructure Monopoly, Contracts, and Discretion)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez Regulating Infrastructure Monopoly, Contracts, and Discretion Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006, 448 pp., $26.95 (paper). Network utilities--such as electricity, telephones, transport, and...

How news affects sovereign spreads.(Emerging Markets and Financial Globalization Sovereign Bond Spreads in 1870-1913 and Today)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... Paolo Mauro, Nathan Sussman, And Yishay Yafeh Emerging Markets and Financial Globalization Sovereign Bond Spreads in 1870-1913 and Today Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, 200 pp., $74 (cloth). What can emerging market countries do to...

A wake up call for Europe.(The Future of Europe Reform or Decline)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi The Future of Europe Reform or Decline MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006, 186 pp., $24.95 (cloth). "A wakeup call." The title of the last chapter captures the thrust of this very readable book...

Bulgaria.(growth and economic aspects)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Having joined the European Union (EU) in January 2007, Bulgaria is off to a promising start in its marathon to catch up with the living standards of its new European partners. But the challenge ahead will be to improve productivity. Since...