Uruguay is a country of about 3.3
million people, which has consistently given high priority
to achieving broadly-shared economic growth and a
sustainable reduction in poverty. A strong and progressive
social compact has been a defining feature of Uruguayan
society and politics, with consistent emphasis placed on
protecting vulnerable groups, assuring worker dignity and
promoting equitable growth. This compact, combined with

Inequality in Indonesia is rising
rapidly. During the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, poverty
rosesharply, while the Gini measure of inequality fell, as
the richest were the hardest hit. Since then, the Gini has
increased from 30 points in 2000 to 41 points in 2014, its
highest recorded level. In 2002, the richest 10 percent of
Indonesians consumed as much as the poorest 42 percent
combined; by 2014, they consumed as much as the poorest 54

Latin America and the Caribbean (LCR)
will be center stage in the global development debate as
leaders from around the world convene in Lima, Peru for the
annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International
Monetary Fund. Critical progress in poverty reduction has
been made in the region over the last decade. The region’s
bottom 40 percent of the population saw growth eclipsing
that seen by the group in every other region in the world.

Market-based reforms and the opening up
of trade and investment initiated over the past four years
have had a positive impact on growth in Myanmar. These have
enhanced private sector participation and increased the role
of exports in the economy. Reforms have included streamlined
business entry procedures, reduced export and import
licensing requirements, and enhanced public-private
partnerships and dialogue. Promoting private sector

Twenty years after the end of the war,
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has yet to achieve shared
prosperity for its citizens and approach European living
standards. The country has been at peace since the end of
1995, but its development model needs adjustment if it is to
join the ranks of prosperous European economies. BiH has a
disproportionately large public sector that dates back to
Yugoslav times and has only been partly reformed since, and

The Montenegrin economy has yet to
recover from the collapse of the lending boom in 2008. The
financial crisis hit asset quality, weakening banks’
portfolios. The legacy of pre-crisis rapid increase in
indebtedness is adding to banking sector vulnerabilities.
The crisis triggered a prolonged period of balance sheet
deleveraging, which has translated into a near uninterrupted
credit contraction. Slow economic growth and gaps in the

This paper complements the results of
earlier work on factor misallocation. The paper first
expands the methodology and provides two important
decompositions for the main indices. The main result is that
factor and output misallocation across districts is at least
as important as misallocation within districts. Second, the
paper provides an exploration of the service sector that
complements earlier work on manufacturing. The analysis

The expansion of international trade has
been essential to development and poverty reduction. Todays
economy is unquestionable global. Trade as a proportion of
global GDP has approximately doubled since 1975. Markets for
goods and services have become increasingly integrated
through a fall in trade barriers, with technology helping
drive trade costs lower. But trade is not an end in itself.
People measure the value of trade by the extent to which it

This report presents the results of a randomized evaluation larger pool of 452 eligible candidates within the 14 CRP
of the impact of the Community Rangers Program 'treatment' communities, 280 such youths were randomly
(CRP), a community-based forest protection program selected to serve as rangers and 172 were assigned to a
implemented in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2011-14. Fauna and control group. Additional observational analysis and data
Flora International (FFt) implemented the CRP with funding collected in the non-CRP treatment Leuser National Park

The objective of this paper is to present the Competitive Cities diagnostic methodology and to guide city practitioners through the diagnostic process, tools and resources that the Competitive Cities team offers.

This technical note discusses the
current status of banking supervision and regulation in
Montenegro in the context of select Basel Core Principles
(BCP). This note has been prepared as part of a Financial
Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) update conducted jointly by
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) in
September 2015. As agreed with the authorities, the FSAP tea

Myanmar’s financial system is undergoing
a rapid transformation. A history of economic isolation has
left Myanmar with small and underdeveloped financial
institutions and very low access to financial services.
Since 2011, however, demands on the financial system have
grown exponentially with increased trade and investment,
growing household income, and expanding government
operations. While recent reforms have stimulated financial