Chart of the WeekMore African Central Banks Are Exploring Digital Currencies
Several sub-Saharan African central banks are exploring or in the pilot phase of a digital currency.
From 1980s Debt Crisis to Crypto Era, Financial Stability Monitoring is Always Evolving
The IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report, introduced in 2002, was a step toward a more comprehensive assessment of risks in financial markets and cross-border capital flows.
How Crypto and CBDCs Can Use Less Energy Than Existing Payment Systems
Environmentally conscious design can make a major difference in the energy efficiency of digital currencies.
Chart of the WeekWhere Are the World’s Fastest Roads?
High-speed roads that can carry goods to customers in far-off markets raise productivity, reduce poverty and are an important contributor to sustainable and inclusive economic development.
How Replacing Coal With Renewable Energy Could Pay For Itself
The world may gain an estimated $78 trillion over coming decades by making this energy transition.
Response to High Food, Energy Prices Should Focus on Most Vulnerable
Countries should allow international prices to pass through to domestic prices while protecting households that are most in need.
A Deeper Look at Forces Fragmenting Our World—and How to Respond
The rare confluence of geopolitical, economic, and technological forces now confronting the world may reverberate for generations.
Chart of the WeekDollar Dominance and the Rise of Nontraditional Reserve Currencies
The US dollar has long played an outsized role in global markets. It continues to do so even as the American economy has been producing a shrinking share of global output over the last two decades.
Chart of the WeekReal-Time Economic Indicators Help Better Track Activity in Africa
Economists are increasingly turning to new technologies that help track indicators such as growth and inflation in real time to sharpen their forecasts and offer better input for policymakers.
Middle East and North Africa’s Commodity Importers Hit by Higher Prices
Higher commodity prices, propelled upwards by war in Ukraine, will have a significant economic impact on the region.