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Agriculture Environment Featured World

Addressing food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa: innovations in data monitoring

Food insecurity remains a critical issue affecting millions of people across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAAP). The region faces a wide range of food security challenges—from acute conflict-related humanitarian crises in some areas to affordability concerns in others, and from high levels of economic prosperity to accompanying nutritional deficits. The food […]

trade Featured Innovation News Productivity World

Europe’s trade surplus, international relative prices, and the productivity growth gap

The euro area faces persistently weak productivity growth alongside a sustained trade surplus and a trendless real exchange rate. This column shows that persistent productivity growth differentials relative to the rest of the world are a key driver of Europe’s external surplus. Structural trade shifts, such as declining home bias and falling import prices, have […]

Finance Banking Economy Featured Politics

The financial sector and global dollar system

The current US administration’s approach to financial markets and institutions mixes familiar deregulatory policies with a range of other policies that are largely without precedent. This column, taken from a CEPR book on the economic consequences of the second Trump administration, catalogues the relevant policy shifts that are likely to affect the financial sector and […]

Finance Banking Economy Featured World

The new currency war: The US-China digital rivalry as a test of monetary discipline

Digital currencies pegged to fiat money face a built-in tension between credibility and competition, creating a ‘stablecoin paradox’. This column analyses the competing frameworks of the US and China to address the paradox. The US (under the GENIUS Act) combines strict reserve rules for privately issued, fully backed dollar stablecoins with market incentives that encourage […]

Finance Banking Featured News World

Crypto, tokenisation, and the future of payments

The introduction of crypto technology and tokenisation is spurring changes in the financial system. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking steps to integrate crypto into traditional finance, most notably the GENIUS Act’s establishment of a regulatory regime for payment stablecoins. This column explores the US’ policy goals concerning digital assets and argues that tokenisation – […]

trade Business Featured News World

Why some countries win in world trade: Unpacking export competitiveness

Global export competitiveness is rapidly evolving. This column presents a novel granular decomposition of export market share changes into demand and supply effects. Applied to Germany, it reveals steep supply‑side losses in medium-/high‑tech and energy‑intensive goods driving recent market share declines. Meanwhile, China continues to gain competitiveness in medium-/high‑tech exports, even as adverse demand pulls […]

Climate Banking Featured World

How central bankers speak about climate and what this means for financial markets

Central banks have increasingly engaged with climate-related topics in their public communication, but little is known about the drivers and effects of this shift. This column presents a comprehensive analysis of climate-related central bank communication using a novel dataset of over 35,000 speeches from 131 central banks spanning 1986-2023. The authors find that climate communication […]

Featured Banking Business Finance World

U.S. tariff of 15% on EU goods is all-inclusive, EU official says

The tariff framework will apply broadly to EU exports, except for steel and aluminium, the official said. The 15% rate will also apply to cars and car parts, with no quotas or limits.  The 15% tariff that European Union goods face when entering the United States is all-inclusive, unlike the deals some other countries have […]

Development Business Featured World

Measuring what matters for business: The new B-READY data in the World Development Indicators

What makes a country a great place to start and grow a business? Among low-income economies across the world, only 29% have a single centralized website dedicated to providing regulatory information pertaining to international trade. In high-income economies, the same number stands at 67% . The World Bank’s new Business Ready (B-READY) project shines a light on this […]