Suchergebnisse

South Asia has performed well over the past 25 years in reducing poverty, improving human development and increasing growth, but faster progress with poverty reduction will require a higher rate of growth. This book shows that the development performance is not a puzzle but largely explained by good policies. Countries in the region have maintained good macroeconomic environments, opened up their economies to greater domestic and international competition, and reduced the role of corrupt and inefficient public enterprises

South Asia has performed well over the past 25 years in reducing poverty, improving human development and increasing growth, but faster progress with poverty reduction will require a higher rate of growth. This book shows that the development performance is not a puzzle but largely explained by good policies. Countries in the region have maintained good macroeconomic environments, opened up their economies to greater domestic and international competition, and reduced the role of corrupt and inefficient public enterprises.

The surge in global commodity prices of the past few years has presented a tremendous development challenge for South Asian countries. The large loss of income from the terms of trade shock has worsened macroeconomic balances, fueled rapid inflation, and hurt growth. Although commodity prices have come down recently, the benefits are being clouded by the emergence of a severe global financial crisis. The adverse consequences of the food price hike for the poor are large; the global financial crisis could further worsen the situation due to falling economic opportunities and government revenues. South Asian countries need to accelerate reforms to avoid facing a serious downturn in economic activity, investment, exports, and income. Governments in South Asia have responded by stabilizing domestic food prices through a number of short-term measures, tightened monetary policy to reduce inflation, and increased spending on a range of safety net programs for the poor. Some of the policies employed, such as export bans, are not consistent with the long-term welfare of the country or the region. Safety net interventions need to be made consistent with a longer-term poverty reduction strategy and fiscal sustainability. Most importantly, policy attention now needs to shift toward efforts to increase farm productivity, improve rural infrastructure, and lower the vulnerability of the poor.

Webster's Dictionary defines institution as "an established
order, principle, law or usage as an element of organised society or of
civilisation". There are other interpretations of this term, depending
upon the context for which the term is needed. For the purposes of the
theme of this 19th Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Society of
Development Economists (PSDE), "Institutional Change, Growth and
Poverty", I find this well-crafted Webster Dictionary definition to be
appropriate and adequate. There is now strong recognition that
institutional reforms are necessary to sustain rapid growth and poverty
reduction in developing countries. However, it is first necessary to
identify and specify what these institutional reforms are. A number of
systematic efforts to define institutions in an analytical context have
been undertaken. For example, the World Development Report (WDR) 2002 of
the World Bank focused on "Building Institutions for Markets" as the
core theme of the report.1 There has been emphasis on aspects of
institutions in other WDRs as well, including in the WDR 1997 on the
Role of the State,2 the WDR 2003 on Environment,3 and the most recent
WDR 2004 on Service Delivery.4 Each of the WDRs builds on the analysis
of earlier WDRs and provides analysis of the institutional context of
the development challenge in concrete terms to make associated reforms
implementable. This is indeed a laudable effort and provides a fairly
rich analytical base over which one can build on to move the
institutional reform agenda forward.

At 6 % p.a. Pakistan's growth performance over the past two decades has been very impressive compared with most of the developing world. However, this growth performance has been accompanished by high fiscal and current account deficits, relatively low savings and investment rates, and poor human capital formation. The article examines the factors that explain Pakistan's rapid growth and whether the country can sustain this high growth performance in the next 10-20 years without the disconcerting factors mentioned above. (DÜI-Sen)

"The surge in global commodity prices of the past few years has presented a tremendous development challenge for South Asian countries. The large loss of income from the terms of trade shock has worsened macroeconomic balances, fueled rapid inflation, and hurt growth. Although commodity prices have come down recently, the benefits are being clouded by the emergence of a severe global financial crisis. The adverse consequences of the food price hike for the poor are large; the global financial crisis could further worsen the situation due to falling economic opportunities and government revenues. South Asian countries need to accelerate reforms to avoid facing a serious downturn in economic activity, investment, exports, and income. Governments in South Asia have responded by stabilizing domestic food prices through a number of short-term measures, tightened monetary policy to reduce inflation, and increased spending on a range of safety net programs for the poor. Some of the policies employed, such as export bans, are not consistent with the long-term welfare of the country or the region. Safety net interventions need to be made consistent with a longer-term poverty reduction strategy and fiscal sustainability. Most importantly, policy attention now needs to shift toward efforts to increase farm productivity, improve rural infrastructure, and lower the vulnerability of the poor. "--World Bank web site