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This is a companion to the Global Economic Prospects 2010. Most commodity prices reached historical highs in mid-2008, giving rise to the longest and broadest commodity boom of the post-WWII period. Apart from strong and sustained economic growth, the boom was fueled by numerous factors including years of low prices and low investment; a weak dollar; and investment fund activity. Rapid economic growth caused global stocks of many commodities to fall to levels not seen since the early 1970s, in turn accelerating the price increases that peaked in 2008. Further exacerbating the demand and supply mismatch were the diversion of some food commodities to the production of biofuels, adverse weather conditions, and government policies such as export bans and prohibitive taxes. The financial crisis that erupted in September 2008 and the subsequent global economic downturn relieved most of the demand-side pressures and induced sharp price declines across most commodity sectors. The largest declines occurred in industrial commodities such as metals (which had also registered the greatest gains in the early 2000s). Between July 2008 and February 2009, prices of energy declined by two-thirds while those of metals dropped by more than half. Prices of agricultural goods retreated by more than 30 percent, with prices of edible oils dropping by 42 percent. The troughs in energy and non-energy indices broadly coincided with troughs in global economic activity (particularly in China and East Asia).

CURRENT TRENDS IN U.S.-THIRD WORLD RELATIONS SEEM TO POSE EVEN GREATER DIFFICULTY FOR FUTURE U.S. ADMINISTRATIONS THAN TRENDS IN U.S.-SOVIET RELATIONS, SPECIFICALLY IN THE AREAS OF ECONOMIC MARKETS, DRUG TRAFFICKING, POLITICS AND EVEN RELIGION. HOWEVER, THE AMERICAN FOREIGN-POLICY ELITE HAS A BLIND SPOT REGARDING THE THIRD WORLD, AND HAS BEEN UNABLE TO FORGE A CONSENSUS COALITION ON THIRD WORLD POLICY. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE REASONS FOR THIS, CITING THREE SPECIFIC FACTORS: A HISTORY OF EARLY ATTITUDES OF SUSPICION AND HOSTILITY BETWEEN WHITES AND NON-WHITES WHICH FOUND ITS WAY INTO AMERICAN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE; THE MOUNTING COSTS IN BLOOD, MONEY AND PRIDE OF U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD; AND, THE EVOLUTION OF THREE DOMINANT UNITED NATIONS ISSUES WHICH TEND TO ISOLATE AMERICA FROM THE THIRD WORLD. THESE ISSUES INCLUDE AMERICA'S TIES WITH ISRAEL, A LACK OF CONSENSUS ON THE APARTLEID IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND AMERICA'S SINGLE-MINDED COMMITMENT TO FREE-MARKET PRINCIPLES.

North Sulawesi province is one of the most developed provinces in eastern Indonesia. Far-reaching development has taken place over the past ten years. Presently, North Sulawesi province has the second highest Human Development Index score in Indonesia, and its poverty rate is low in comparison with other provinces. Over the past decade, per capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP) has doubled and sub-national government spending has increased significantly. Nevertheless, there remain various development challenges to address as well as various potential resources and opportunities to pursue. North Sulawesi's performance in regional financial management has been relatively good, but discrepancies remain in the performance and capacity of different work units within each regional government and also between different regional governments in the province. To address challenges, take opportunities, and increase development performance, sub-national governments in North Sulawesi, particularly the provincial government, need to better utilize their fiscal resources. Clearer vision, mission, indicators and development targets must be accompanied by greater efforts to prepare a more directed budget, and to formulate higher quality programs and activities more consistent with planning targets. This report is an effort to assist North Sulawesi's sub-national governments to improve their regional financial management performance, to improve the quality of planning and budgeting, and finally to contribute to local development performance. The report results from strong cooperation between sub-national governments in North Sulawesi province, the Economics Faculty of Sam Ratulangi University, which was supported by CIDA, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the World Bank. North Sulawesi Province BAPPEDA (Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency) played an important role in facilitating the preparation of this report. It is expected that this report will benefit North Sulawesi's sub-national governments, sub-national governments elsewhere in Indonesia and the central government by serving as a reference for efforts to improve sub-national financial management performance and the regional development process. Finally, this report can contribute to better and more effective sub-national financial management and governance. Overall, North Sulawesi's strategic sectors (health, education, infrastructure and agriculture) are performing better than in other provinces in eastern Indonesia.

The report titled 'contingent liabilities: the Colombian experience,' is the first publication on the management of contingent liabilities in Colombia. Published by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (MHCP), the report highlights technical and normative efforts and policy reforms on the management of contingent liabilities implemented by the Colombian Government. Policy reforms disclosed in the report pertain to the management of contingent liabilities borne by the Government from four different sources, namely public credit operations, contractual public-private partnerships on infrastructure development, legal actions against the Colombian Government, and contingencies resulting from natural disasters. Importantly, although natural disasters are the second most important source of contingent liabilities faced by the Colombian Government, most formal policy reforms have been directed to the institutionalization of managing the first three sources of contingencies, while legal reforms for the explicit accounting of natural disasters is an ongoing effort in Colombia.

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Selected Background Data -- 1-1. Basic indicators -- 1-2. Population -- Technical notes -- 2. National Accounts -- 2-1. Gross domestic product, real -- 2-2. Value added in agriculture -- 2-3. Value added in industry -- 2-4. Value added in services -- 2-5. Gross domestic product, nominal -- 2-6. Total consumption -- 2-7. General government consumption -- 2-8. Gross domestic investment -- 2-9. Gross public investment -- 2-10. Gross private investment -- 2-11. Gross domestic savings -- 2-12. Gross national savings -- 2-13. Resource balance -- 2-14. Exports of goods and nonfactor services, nominal -- 2-15. Imports of goods and nonfactor services, nominal -- 2-16. Exports of goods and nonfactor services, real -- 2-17. Imports of goods and nonfactor services, real -- 2-18. GDP growth -- 2-19. Gross National Income (GNI) per capita -- 2-20. Total consumption per capita -- Technical notes -- 3. Prices and Exchange Rates -- 3-1. GDP deflator (local currency series) -- 3-2. GDP deflator (U.S.dollar series) -- 3-3. Consumer price index -- 3-4. Official exchange rate -- 3-5. SDR exchange rate index -- 3-6. Currency conversion factor -- 3-7. Parallel market exchange rate -- 3-8. Ratio of parallel market to official exchange rates -- 3-9. Real effective exchange rate index -- Technical notes -- 4. Money and Banking -- 4-1. Domestic credit -- 4-2. Credit to the private sector -- 4-3. Credit to the government -- 4-4. Net foreign assets -- 4-5. Growth of money supply -- 4-6. Discount rate -- 4-7. Real discount rate -- 4-8. Commercial bank lending rate -- 4-9. Commercial bank deposit rate -- Technical notes -- 5. External Sector -- Balance of Payments -- 5-1. Merchandise exports, f.o.b. -- 5-2. Merchandise imports, f.o.b.

Palestinians are getting poorer on average for the third year in a row. As evidenced in previous World Bank reports, the competitiveness of the Palestinian economy has been progressively eroding since the signing of the Oslo accords, in particular its industry and agriculture. Even though donor aid had increased government-funded services and fueled consumption-driven growth during 2007 to 2011, this growth model has proved unsustainable. Donor support has significantly declined in recent years and, in any case, aid cannot sustainably make up for inadequate private investment. Thus, growth has started to slow since 2012 and the Palestinian economy contracted in 2014 following the Gaza war. In early 2015, GDP was still lower than it was a year ago. Due to population growth, real GDP per capita has been shrinking since 2013. Unemployment remains high, particularly amongst Gaza's youth where it exceeds 60 percent, and 25 percent of Palestinians currently live in poverty. Against the backdrop of weak economic growth, reduced donor aid, and temporary suspension of revenue payments by the Government of Israel (GoI), the Palestinian Authority's reform efforts have not been able to prevent another year with a financing gap. The persistence of this situation could potentially lead to political and social unrest. In short, the status quo is not sustainable and downside risks of further conflict and social unrest are high.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can bring many benefits to Kosovo's economy, creating more and better jobs and spurring greater and more resilient economic growth. Many transition economies have used FDI as a pillar of their structural transformation and modernization efforts. The small number of firms in Kosovo that include FDI are more productive than other firms, and they were more resilient in the wake of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) economic recession. In Kosovo, FDI inflows have been concentrated in sectors that provide limited potential for productivity spillovers and benefits to the domestic economy. Kosovo needs to adopt proactive policies to strengthen its investment competitiveness and investor outreach in order to unlock more and higher-quality FDI. This note presents an ambitious reform agenda that can help improve Kosovo's investment competitiveness and investor outreach. It presents a step-by-step reform program for unlocking the full potential of FDI for economic growth and job creation in Kosovo that the government can implement in the short to medium term. The note is structured in three sections. The first section looks at Kosovo's FDI performance and assesses the quantity and quality of the FDI attracted so far. The second section benchmarks Kosovo's locational FDI determinants, considering a set of macroeconomic and microeconomic indicators for its overall FDI competitiveness. The third section combines the findings from the first two sections with an in-depth assessment of Kosovo's policy, legal, and institutional framework for investment to present a targeted reform agenda and policy action plan to help attract more and higher-quality investments to Kosovo.

This agriculture public expenditure review (AgPER) provides key background information and guidance in this endeavor by presenting and analyzing historic data on public spending on agriculture, examining the efficiency of spending, and identifying areas where additional funds can be applied effectively to achieve national agricultural policy and comprehensive Africa agriculture development program (CAADP) objectives. The goals of the AgPER in Sierra Leone are as follows: gain a better understanding of the countrys performance in the context of the 2003 Maputo declaration; draw lessons from the past in terms of budget execution in the agricultural sector and identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and deviations from goals; seek and recommend corrective actions for existing and future programs with a view to improving their impact and making them more efficient and equitable; initiate the implementation of the databases and methodology required for conducting similar reviews regularly and thus contribute to the institutionalization of the process; help the government establish an environment and capabilities for results-based management, with particular emphasis on improving planning, execution, and monitoring and evaluation; and increase visibility for the government and the financial and technical partners over the sectors absorptive capacity so that the decision may be made to allocate more resources to agricultural development. This report consists of five chapters: first chapter introduces the strategic and institutional context; second chapter studies the level of public agricultural expenditure in Sierra Leone; third chapter analyzes the economic and functional composition of public agricultural expenditure (allocative efficiency); fourth chapter assesses the technical efficiency of the processes of preparation, execution, and monitoring and evaluation of agricultural budgets; and fifth chapter contains our findings and recommendations.

Small dams play an important role in the provision of many kinds of benefits, such as drinking and irrigation water supply, flood control, small/mini hydropower generation, fishing, and so on. They are particularly important in rural and agricultural areas. Agriculture remains an engine of rural growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. Agricultural water management (AWM) can change the lives of millions of people by improving yields, reducing risks linked to climate variability, and increasing income for farmers. The demand for water storage is increasing as farmers and rural communities are more frequently facing water shortages for their crops and livestock. This demand is in part driven by climate change and increasing variability and scarcity observed around the globe. This note provides some lessons on how to address the challenges of small dam management with participation of community groups and effective government support for them.

The 2020 G20 Presidency mandated the Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) to develop an agenda to accelerate the adoption and application of technology-enabled infrastructure (InfraTech). This agenda supports two existing IWG initiatives, the Roadmap to Infrastructure as an Asset Class, and the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII). Technology supports the roadmap by providing enhanced data, tools, and transparency for investors. In addition, it creates new investment opportunities by creating new markets, business models and potential for enhanced revenues. InfraTech also supports QII, as many technologies maximize the positive impact of infrastructure by enhancing sustainability, inclusivity, and resilience. The potential economic efficiencies that new technologies offer also help attain value for money across the project lifecycle and potentially reduce upfront or recurring public financial outlays. InfraTech also provides valuable tools for governments to respond to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. This Reference Note supports the InfraTech Agenda endorsed by the G20 Infrastructure Working Group by outlining the potential economic, social, and environmental value to countries generated by adopting InfraTech solutions. It also provides a framework for evaluating the benefits of these solutions against their costs and risks. This paper focuses on the transport, energy, water, and digital infrastructure sectors.

The 2020 G20 Presidency mandated the Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) to develop an agenda to accelerate the adoption and application of technology-enabled infrastructure (InfraTech). This agenda supports two existing IWG initiatives—the Roadmap to Infrastructure as an Asset Class, and the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII). Technology supports the roadmap by providing enhanced data, tools, and transparency for investors. In addition, it creates new investment opportunities by creating new markets, business models and potential for enhanced revenues. InfraTech also supports QII, as many technologies maximize the positive impact of infrastructure by enhancing sustainability, inclusivity, and resilience. The potential economic efficiencies that new technologies offer also help attain value for money across the project lifecycle and potentially reduce upfront or recurring public financial outlays. InfraTech also provides valuable tools for governments to respond to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) health and economic crisis. This reference note supports the InfraTech Agenda by outlining priority areas and tools for policymakers to implement the agenda. This paper focuses on the transport, energy, water, and digital infrastructure sectors.

After the return to democracy, Ghana achieved significant economic growth and poverty reduction. However, in recent years, the rate of poverty reduction has slowed, becoming insignificant after 2012. The largest reduction in poverty, 2 percent per year, was reached from 1991–1998. Subsequently, the rate of decline fell to 1.4 percent in 1998–2005, 1.1 percent in 2005–2012, and dropped to 0.2 percent per year between 2012 and 2016. The slowdown in poverty reduction was not due to a reduction in GDP per capita growth, which peaked between 2005 and 2012 and remained high between 2012 and 2016. Rather, it was due to a drop in the rate to which economic growth translated into poverty reduction. The growth elasticity of poverty (percentage reduction in poverty associated for every one percentage change in GDP per capita) was 1.2 between 1991 and 1998 but declined to less than 0.1 between 2012 and 2016, indicating a 1 percent increase in GDP per capita led to less than 0.1 percent reduction in poverty.

Gabon's abundant endowment of natural resources, its strategic location, political stability, high urbanization, and youthful population create a broad but challenging development space for poverty reduction and shared prosperity. Immediately after independence the benefits of the oil boom propelled the country to upper-middle-income status and brought major progress in living conditions. The thriving resource sector triggered large migration flows of rural population to urban centers, resulting in the highest urbanization rate recorded in Africa. This urbanization process was characterized by increasing concentration of population and economic activities in a few cities along the coast, while the rest of the country became increasingly sparsely populated. The institutional and infrastructural foundations to ensure inclusive development and broad-based improvement of living conditions were not adequately set up. As a result, early economic and social achievements became unsustainable and have begun to fade with the decline of commodity prices and depletion of resources. Since its peak in the mid-1970s, real GDP per capita has halved. Today, persistent spatial inequalities are holding back lagging areas, unemployment is among the highest in Africa, and a large share of employment is informal and of low productivity. Poverty remains pervasive in the country. The incidence of poverty is particularly high in rural areas, but there is a disproportionate concentration of the poor in the main urban centers. Weak governance, coupled with lack of sound budgetary planning, prevent effective allocation of resources to promote social development and spatial integration. This Poverty Assessment uses the available household survey data (EGEP 2005 and 2017), the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS 2000 and 2012) and population census (RGPL 2013) to examine the nature of Gabon's poverty and looks forward asking what would be needed to sustainably reduce it.

Carbon pricing is increasingly recognized as an important source of government revenue. Carbon revenues can be crucial in supporting cost-effective climate mitigation, industrial competitiveness and other economic and development objectives. How carbon revenues are used and how these uses are communicated are also critical for public and stakeholder acceptability of carbon pricing. This report provides practical guidance on using carbon revenues by helping policymakers understand the implications, opportunities, and challenges associated with different approaches to carbon revenue use.