Private capital for infrastructure: Resilience amid uncertainty, urgency amid gaps
As the global economy continues to adapt to macroeconomic shifts, infrastructure investment remains a critical driver of job creation, long-term development opportunities and resilience. While recent
From farm to fork: boosting food security by fixing border bottlenecks
Imagine a truckload of fresh mangoes grown by smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka. The fruit is ripe, fragrant, and ready for export. But instead of
Violent conflict and cross-border lending
How states leverage sovereign debt to support their military endeavours has been examined thoroughly, but the relationship between private finance and armed conflict remains underexplored.
Gender-neutral economics can no longer be the default
Economic research often treats tools such as tariffs, subsides, interest rates, monetary policy, and austerity measures as gender neutral. This column argues that when sex-disaggregated
Task-based returns to generative AI: Evidence from a central bank
How does generative AI affect real workplace productivity? This column reports results from an experiment at the National Bank of Slovakia, where staff were randomly
Africa’s path to claiming the 21st century runs through its cities
In their recent blog Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?, Andrew Dabalen and Chorching Goh rightly highlight Africa’s moment of opportunity: a convergence of global attention,
Lessons for rebuilding Ukraine from economic recoveries after natural disasters
Although the source and duration of the destruction differ, wars and natural disasters disrupt economies in similar ways. This column examines the effects of natural
What does it mean to live in a country that is 0.517 poor?
According to the UNDP’s Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the Republic of Chad has a poverty score of 0.517. But what does this number mean? Is it
US dollar stablecoin mercantilism is an opportunity to promote payment multilateralism and the international role of the euro
The EU and the US have taken starkly different approaches to the regulation of new monies issued using distributed ledger technology. The current US administration
The world needs radical debt transparency
Over the past two decades, many developing countries have made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, expanding access to education and health care, and investing in
