Opportunities for Financial and Agricultural Service Providers

Rural women are central to building more resilient global food systems, yet face disproportionate threats from climate stresses and shocks. To help rural women adapt and thrive in the face of climate change and boost food security, service providers must design and deliver financial and non-financial solutions that create value for rural women as well as their businesses.

Economic forecasts

Regional Economic Prospects review the latest economic developments in the EBRD regions and provide a discussion of recent growth performance as well the latest forecasts prepared by economists and economic analysts at the EBRD.

They also provide analysis on topical issues such as the impact of the war on Ukraine and high inflation on the economies in the EBRD regions and implications for policies.

But the international architecture must adapt to a fast-changing world

Today fewer than 1 in 10 of the world’s people are poor, a fourfold reduction since 1990, as low- and middle-income countries have doubled their share of global trade. Pivotal to this leap in global income is a twentyfold increase in international trade since 1960.

"The Sustainability Report 2022 explores the many ways in which the EBRD worked over the course of the year to prepare its regions for a stronger, more resilient and sustainable future. It details how the Bank responded to multiple crises, including the impact of the invasion of Ukraine, and the global emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss."

An international classification of green and brown occupations

This paper describes the methodology used for crosswalking occupation-based measures of Green (“environmentally friendly”) and Brown (“polluting”) jobs from the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system to the International Standard Occupation Classification (ISCO) 08 at the most detailed (4-digit) level. The original, task-based Greenness scores by Vona et al. (2018) are provided at the 8-digit SOC level, and the industry-based Brownness measures are provided in 6-digit SOC. Crosswalking these measures requires several choices in terms of weighting and aggregating, which this paper describes in detail.

Basic Statistics 2023 presents data for 46 economies in Asia and the Pacific on development indicators tracking progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Safeguarding Financial Stability amid High Inflation and Geopolitical Risks

The Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) provides an assessment of the global financial system and markets, and addresses emerging market financing in a global context.

Developing Asia faces a climate policy crossroads. The region is highly vulnerable to climate change, even as it is an increasing contributor to the global climate crisis. This report models emission pathways based on commitments and pledges under the Paris Agreement and compares them with more optimal routes to net zero. It examines required transformations in the energy sector and land use and assesses socioeconomic implications. The report looks at policy costs, climate benefits, air quality co-benefits, and labor market outcomes, and discusses policies for an efficient and equitable transition.

The investment decisions made by financial institutions play a crucial role in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, and yet quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of investments and presenting the results in a transparent and comparable way is no easy task. This publication is a compilation of publicly available sources concerning the methodologies and tools available to guide financial institutions assess, set targets, and disclose GHG emissions.

CGAP has set to demonstrate how business intelligence can be improved through interventions requiring minimum or no investment in technology through a set of pilots. This Technical Note presents an overview of the approach and initial observations on what it reveals for MFIs implementing new digital products and channels. It explains the importance of business intelligence focused on customer behavior, which customer behavior is relevant to measure, and how to build a business intelligence practice that supports this competency.

The reopening of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will boost regional economic growth through supply chain linkages and demand for goods and services. Growth in the PRC is expected to rebound to 5.0% this year from 3.0% in 2022. Healthy domestic demand in India will also support regional growth: India is forecast to grow by 6.4% in 2023. Growth in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia will be lifted as tourism recovers. Meanwhile, headline inflation is expected to decelerate from 4.4% in 2022 to 4.2% this year and 3.3% in 2024.

"An increasing number of National Financial Inclusion Strategies are now highlighting the need to promote women’s financial inclusion. However, this new analysis from WBL and CGAP finds that they could do more to promote access to credit for women entrepreneurs, and to enhance the national-level collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated financial data."