Otaviano Canuto, Center for Macroeconomics and Development: China’s Rebalancing Act is Slowly Addressing Sliding Growth Figures

China’s economic growth has been sliding since 2011, while its economic structure has gradually rebalanced toward lower dependence on investments and current-account surpluses. Steadiness in that trajectory has been accompanied by rising levels of domestic private debt, as well as

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MIGA Exclusive Interview: Business Priority to Work With All People

Interview from February 2019, with Keiko Honda, Executive Vice-President and CEO of the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).  CFI.co: You have been at the head of MIGA for almost six years. Is there a key lesson that

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Otaviano Canuto, Center for Macroeconomics and Development: How to Heal the Brazilian Economy

If I were to encapsulate the current situation of the Brazilian economy in one sentence, I would say: “It is suffering from a combination of ‘productivity anemia’ and ‘public sector obesity’”. On the one hand, the country’s mediocre productivity performance

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Stacey Ferreira: The Billion Dollar Pitch

Few people make their first million before they turn twenty, and fewer still can say they have penned an international best-seller to boot. Stacey Ferreira, however, has done both. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she is also the CEO

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Financial Centres Promote Economic Development: AIFC Goes for Growth by Backing SMEs Globally

International Financial Centres (IFCs) are a necessary component of national and global economic growth. And increasingly, it is co-operation between IFCs, rather than competition, that drives the development agenda of the world’s established and emerging financial centres. As the Astana

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Lawrence Summers: Setting the Record Straight on Secular Stagnation

Joseph Stiglitz recently dismissed the relevance of secular stagnation to the American economy, and in the process attacked (without naming me) my work in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I am not a disinterested observer, but

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PwC: Nigerian Report on Ease of Doing Business

In 2016, the Nigerian economy was in a recession recording negative growth of 1.5%. This was mainly triggered by the fall in crude oil prices. There were also foreign exchange shortages and inflation which affected the growth of the services

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Jordan: The Sky Is the Limit

The hub for flag carrier Royal Jordanian Airlines, Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA), just south of Amman repeatedly takes top honours for convenience, efficiency, and overall traveller satisfaction. In a region known for its luxurious aviation hubs, the relatively compact

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Kenneth Rogoff: Are Emerging Markets the Canary in the Financial Coal Mine?

Are brewing exchange-rate and debt crises in Argentina and Turkey localised events without broader implications? Or are they early warning signs of deeper fragilities in bloated global debt markets that are being exposed as the US Federal Reserve continues to

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Otaviano Canuto, World Bank: Can Services Replace Manufacturing as an Engine for Development?

Manufacturing expansion has been a vehicle for job creation, productivity increases, and growth in non-advanced economies since the second half of the last century. First in Latin America, followed by Asia, and a renewal of production systems in Eastern Europe,

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