This 2016 Article IV Consultation highlights that Lebanon’s economic growth remains subdued. Following a sharp drop in 2011, growth edged upward briefly to 2–3 percent, but has now slowed again. The IMF staff estimates that GDP increased by 1 percent in 2015, and a similar growth rate in 2016 is projected. Lebanon’s traditional growth drivers—tourism, real estate, and construction—have received a significant blow and a strong rebound is unlikely based on current trends. In the absence of a turnaround in confidence, or a resolution of the Syrian conflict, growth is unlikely to return to potential (4 percent) soon.

When policymakers have little option but to consider a sizable fiscal adjustment, they are confronted by the following questions: Can a large fiscal adjustment be implemented succesfully? How is a large adjustment best designed and implemented? What will be its impact on the economy? This Occasional Paper addresses these questions by describing the experience of countries that have undertaken large fiscal adjustments in the last three decades. It provides operational guidance to policymakers by identifying preconditions, common policy approaches, and institutional arrangements underlying successful and unsuccessful adjustment episodes.

The countries of Eastern Europe have much to gain from stabilizing their economies and integrating them with the world economy. They should make trade reforms a high priority. Policymakers there should look at the recent economic history of other nations for lessons.

"Using a new database of World Bank loans to support financial sector development, the authors investigate whether countries that received such loans experienced more rapid growth on standard indicators of financial development than countries that did not. They account for self-selection with treatment effects regressions, and also use propensity score matching techniques. The authors' results indicate that borrowing countries had significantly more rapid growth in M2/GDP than non-borrowers, and swifter reductions in interest rate spreads and cash holdings (as a share of M2). Borrowers also had higher private credit growth rates than non-borrowers in treatment effects regressions, but not in standard panel regressions with fixed country effects. On the whole, however, the results indicate significant advantages for borrowers over non-borrowers in terms of financial development."--Cover verso.

This book examines postcolonial strategies for economic development in Africa from the 1960s to the present day.

Most development economists are versed only in the post-World War II period of their subject. But economic growth was a major concern in the 18th century, and colonial economics and policy commanded much attention in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. A return to these earlier concerns can now provide present-day development economists with a greater appreciation of the intellectual history of their subject. Even more, such a return might strengthen the conceptual and empirical foundations of the subject. These are this book's objectives.

The process of Asia's rise to a position of eminence in global finance has accelerated in the wake of the international financial crisis. This volume intends to explore and understand the dynamics created by this process of transition.

This volume is one of a series of reports on the state of the budget and the economy issued each year. The report makes no recommendations. Contents: (1) The Budget Outlook; (2) The Economic Outlook; (3) The Spending Outlook; (4) The Revenue Outlook. Appendices: (A) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; (B) Changes in the Baseline Since August 2009; (C) How Changes in Economic Projections Can Affect Budget Projections; (D) Trust Funds and Measures of Federal Debt; (E) Economic Projections for 2009 to 2020; (F) Historical Budget Data; (G) Contributors to the Revenue and Spending Projections. Glossary. Charts and tables.