Despite significant progress in recent decades, labor markets across the world remain divided along gender lines. Female labor force participation has remained lower than male participation, gender wage gaps are high, and women are overrepresented in the informal sector and among the poor. In many countries, legal restrictions persist which constrain women from developing their full economic potential. While equality between men and women is in itself an important development goal, women's economic participation is also a part of the growth and stability equation. In rapidly aging economies, higher female labor force participation can boost growth by mitigating the impact of a shrinking workforce. Better opportunities for women can also contribute to broader economic development in developing economies, for instance through higher levels of school enrollment for girls.
Markets have been broadly orderly so far—but financial stability risks are elevated
The Middle East conflict halted growth momentum. The right policies and stronger global cooperation are needed to contain the damage.
Rising defense spending requires difficult fiscal choices to avoid raising vulnerabilities, while post-war recovery hinges on policies to reduce uncertainty, rebuild capital, and help displaced people return home
Nonbank financial investors expand funding access for emerging markets, but their flows are highly sensitive to shifts in global risk sentiment
Widening global current account imbalances are best addressed by simultaneous domestic policy adjustments. Industrial policy and tariffs offer a costly fix with unreliable effects on imbalances.
Energy prices, supply chains, and financial markets are the main transmission channels, but the regional effects will vary significantly
Coming Soon: The Regional Economic Outlook: Europe reviews economic developments in the region.
Coming Soon
We will present the latest economic developments and prospects in the Middle East and Central Asia region on April 16 at 10:30 AM ET.
The Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa reviews economic developments in sub-Saharan Africa. The latest report will be published on April 16, 2026.
Press briefing covering recent economic developments and the outlook for the Asia and Pacific region.
Global Economy in the Shadow of War
The latest World Economic Outlook reports slowing global growth and renewed inflationary pressures. Policies need to be agile, carefully manage the trade-offs involved in ramping up defense spending, and lay the foundation for a sustained recovery.
This note offers insights into harnessing emerging technologies to enhance efficiency, decision making, and accountability in public financial management (PFM). Acknowledging the speculative enthusiasm around certain technologies and the diversity of country contexts, traditions, and PFM frameworks, it advocates for a structured, objective-driven approach for adopting emerging technologies, which involves assessing the potential gains and feasibility. The note also outlines key practices for sustainable adoption and for navigating the complexities of digital transformation in PFM. It is accompanied by Technology Cards, which illustrate key technologies and their relevance for PFM, providing a practical resource for policymakers and practitioners.
This paper quantifies the effects of increases in military expenditures on education and health spending using local projections and different strategies to identify exogenous changes in military spending based on data for 33 sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies over the period 1990-2023. Specifications with shocks identified through military spending surges and through a fiscal reaction function yield mixed results that typically are neither economically nor statistically significant. But instrumental variables estimates that tackle endogeneity concerns indicate that a one-standard-deviation increase in the share of military spending in total government expenditure reduces the shares of education and health spending by about 1 percentage point over the medium-term. The crowding-out effects tend to materialize sooner for health expenditures, likely because they have a larger discretionary component, while education spending is marked by rigidities. In addition, we find that military spending shocks tend to crowd-out health expenditures when access to international aid is limited, while there is no evidence of crowding-out when aid is relatively amply available. In contrast, it appears that overall debt levels and the state of the business cycle are not significant factors in determining the extent of crowding-out effects of military expenditure.
Markets have been broadly orderly so far—but financial stability risks are elevated
The Middle East conflict halted growth momentum. The right policies and stronger global cooperation are needed to contain the damage.
Rising defense spending requires difficult fiscal choices to avoid raising vulnerabilities, while post-war recovery hinges on policies to reduce uncertainty, rebuild capital, and help displaced people return home
Nonbank financial investors expand funding access for emerging markets, but their flows are highly sensitive to shifts in global risk sentiment
Widening global current account imbalances are best addressed by simultaneous domestic policy adjustments. Industrial policy and tariffs offer a costly fix with unreliable effects on imbalances.
Energy prices, supply chains, and financial markets are the main transmission channels, but the regional effects will vary significantly
Coming Soon: The Regional Economic Outlook: Europe reviews economic developments in the region.
Coming Soon
We will present the latest economic developments and prospects in the Middle East and Central Asia region on April 16 at 10:30 AM ET.
The Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa reviews economic developments in sub-Saharan Africa. The latest report will be published on April 16, 2026.
Press briefing covering recent economic developments and the outlook for the Asia and Pacific region.
Global Economy in the Shadow of War
The latest World Economic Outlook reports slowing global growth and renewed inflationary pressures. Policies need to be agile, carefully manage the trade-offs involved in ramping up defense spending, and lay the foundation for a sustained recovery.
This note offers insights into harnessing emerging technologies to enhance efficiency, decision making, and accountability in public financial management (PFM). Acknowledging the speculative enthusiasm around certain technologies and the diversity of country contexts, traditions, and PFM frameworks, it advocates for a structured, objective-driven approach for adopting emerging technologies, which involves assessing the potential gains and feasibility. The note also outlines key practices for sustainable adoption and for navigating the complexities of digital transformation in PFM. It is accompanied by Technology Cards, which illustrate key technologies and their relevance for PFM, providing a practical resource for policymakers and practitioners.
This paper quantifies the effects of increases in military expenditures on education and health spending using local projections and different strategies to identify exogenous changes in military spending based on data for 33 sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies over the period 1990-2023. Specifications with shocks identified through military spending surges and through a fiscal reaction function yield mixed results that typically are neither economically nor statistically significant. But instrumental variables estimates that tackle endogeneity concerns indicate that a one-standard-deviation increase in the share of military spending in total government expenditure reduces the shares of education and health spending by about 1 percentage point over the medium-term. The crowding-out effects tend to materialize sooner for health expenditures, likely because they have a larger discretionary component, while education spending is marked by rigidities. In addition, we find that military spending shocks tend to crowd-out health expenditures when access to international aid is limited, while there is no evidence of crowding-out when aid is relatively amply available. In contrast, it appears that overall debt levels and the state of the business cycle are not significant factors in determining the extent of crowding-out effects of military expenditure.
