Macroeconomy & Globalization

Myanmar may be the last frontier market in Asia, with plenty of natural resources and a government targeting growth of over 7.5% for the next five years. Still, while investors remain cautiously optimistic, the economic transition will need to be delicately handled.

Over the past year, Georgia has undergone a major political face-lift. Since the Georgian Dream coalition, led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, won parliamentary elections in October 2012, a cadre of relatively young and inexperienced politicians has risen to the government’s top posts.

EMERGING MARKETS REGIONAL REVIEW Latin America may be experiencing its worst slowdown in economic growth since the global financial crisis, but there are some bright spots for investors willing to play a long game. While some analysts had predicted 2014 ...

Saddled with debt of $70 billion, Puerto Rico’s government is doing its best to reassure US investors that it will honor its financial commitments and that its beleaguered finances will be remedied.

Twelve months is a long time in financial markets, and the phenomenon of globalization appears to have reached a fork in the road, with growth in emerging markets looking challenged. Is the globalization frenzy coming to an end?

Putin: Gaga for Lada (photo: premier.gov.ru) Here’s an incredibly important piece of advice for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin: Stop slapping exorbitant import duties on automobiles. The tariffs are not only choking off the supply of nameplates from the ...

Makati City, the Philippines: Nothing pedestrian about 7% GDP growth (Photo: Mike Gonzalez) IT'S BEEN AN UGLY 2013 for investors in emerging markets. How ugly? Despite early predictions of potential double-digit gains, the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index is down ...

NEWSMAKERS By Valentina Pasquali Against all odds, a broad-based coalition of the center-left and the center-right remains at the helm of crisis-beleaguered Italy. The unlikely assortment of ministers from the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico-PD) and the People of Freedom (Popolo ...

MILESTONES By Gordon Platt The presidents of Colombia, Peru and Chile sat down to lunch with the economy minister of Mexico at a “CEO summit” in New York in late September. The four chatted amiably about the Pacific Alliance, their ...

NEWSMAKERS By KA Badarinath Once a tea vendor, Narendra Modi—now a main candidate for prime minister of India—has come a long way in the past 30 years. The 63-year-old Modi has entered the fray for the May 2014 election race ...

By Valentina Pasquali   In conjunction with the International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, Global Finance presents its annual IMF/World Bank Issue.   When the eurozone logged 0.3% growth in the second quarter of 2013, ending a streak ...

According to the World Bank, Indians living abroad—known in economist-speak as Non-Resident Indians/Persons of Indian Origin (NRI/PIO)— sent home $70 billion in 2012 , which makes the country the world's largest recipient of remittances. Many Indians send money to loved ...

IMF/World Bank Meetings Seminar, Thursday, October 10, 4:00 pm. Five years after the peak of the Great Recession, growth remains anemic (or negative) across most of Europe and unemployment, especially among young people, has reached unacceptably high levels in all ...

IMF/World Bank Meetings Seminar: Wednesday, October 9, 10:00 am . In response to the 2008–09 global financial crisis, advanced economies have conducted a variety of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs). These aimed to restore the functioning of financial markets and intermediation ...

IMF/Word Bank Meetings Seminar: Thursday, October 10, 2:00 pm. Global growth has softened again. Downside risks have become more relevant. The euro area remains in recession with risks of stagnant growth and with financial fragmentation continuing to restrain credit. Other ...

IMF/World Bank Meetings Seminar: Wednesday, October 9, 2:00 pm. Emerging markets have for some time played an important role on the global economic stage and are a major driver of global growth. More recently, a second group of countries—the so-called ...

IMF/Word Bank Meetings Seminar: Tuesday, October 8, 3:00 pm. Emerging markets (EMs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, and they now account for nearly half of global output. More recently, however, growth in most EMs has ...

Croatia becomes 28th member of the EU In 2004, when nine former Communist countries joined the EU, there were widespread celebrations at what was seen as the formal end of the Cold War. Three years later the two largest Balkan ...

The Impact Of Rising Prosperity On Economic Growth   Growth in the world’s economy is moving large numbers of people out of poverty, and if the trend continues, the shift will be dramatic in many countries by the end of ...

Electronic payment can refer just to e-commerce--or payments for buying and selling goods or services offered online--or to any type of electronic funds transfer. It includes such payment channels as direct debit, e-money, card payments, and credit transfers. Data is ...