Global Economic Prospects

Global Economic Prospects is an annual World Bank flagship report.

New, published December 2008

Global Economic Prospects 2009: Commodities at the Crossroads
The world financial crisis has dimmed short-term prospects for developing countries and the volume of world trade is likely to contract for the first time since 1982. The sharp slowdown has caused commodity prices to plummet, ending a historic five-year boom.

Last Four Reports

Global Economic Prospects 2008: Technology Diffusion in the Developing World
Rapid technological progress in developing countries has helped to raise incomes and reduce the share of people living in absolute poverty from 29 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2004. Despite these gains, the technology gap between rich and poor countries remains enormous, and the capacity of developing economies to adopt new technology remains weak. Developing countries must improve their capacity to absorb and use technology.

Global Economic Prospects 2007: Managing the Next Wave of Globalization
Over the next 25 years developing countries will move to center stage in the global economy. Global Economic Prospects 2007 analyzes the opportunities - and stresses - this will create. While rich and poor countries alike stand to benefit, the integration process will make more acute stresses already apparent today - in income inequality, in labor markets, and in the environment.

Global Economic Prospects 2006: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration
This year’s edition of Global Economic Prospects focuses on the flow of international migrant remittances and improving their development impact. It presents available data on migration flows and examines current thinking on issues pertaining to migration and its development impact. The bulk of the book covers remittances, including their size, determinants, development impact, and steps to strengthen financial infrastructure and reduce transaction costs.

Global Economic Prospects 2005: Trade, Regionalism, and Development
This report examines the proliferation of bilateral and regional preferential trading arrangements and what this means for the multilateral Doha trade negotiations. It tackles three main questions: What types of agreements help promote—and which ones impede—development? Do bilateral and regional agreements promote a deeper integration that the multilateral system cannot deliver on? Do they negatively impact a country’s incentive to engage in multilateral Doha trade talks?