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24-Apr-2008
The strong growth that has emerged in recent years is encouraging and the risks to underlying inflation are manageable. However, there are policy challenges. Most important is a need to ensure fiscal sustainability through public-finance reform to put the economy in a better shape to cope with population ageing.
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22-Apr-2008
The “worst-case” scenario, set out in the 2008 OECD Environmental Outlook, should be enough to grab anyone’s full attention. Fortunately, there is a far brighter prospect the OECD can foresee, which the world’s environment ministers will focus on at the important OECD ministerial conference in April. Read the OECD Observer editorial by Secretary-General Angel Gurría.
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16-Apr-2008
The Irish economy has performed remarkably well over the past decade, propelling per capita income to above the EU average. Though the period of rapid catch-up has ended and productivity growth has slowed in recent years, the economic fundamentals remain strong.
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17-Mar-2008
Chile has made important progress in raising incomes and reducing poverty. Real per capita incomes have more than doubled since the restoration of democracy in 1990, and the incidence of poverty (as measured by the cost of two basic food baskets) has fallen by nearly two-thirds, from 38.6% of the population in 1990 to 13.7% in 2006. Over the same period extreme poverty, as measured by the cost of one basic food basket, has been almost eradicated, falling from 12.5% to 3.2%.
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28-Feb-2008
Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries and its importance for economic development is widely acknowledged. What makes tourism different from many other services is that the supplier stays where he is, and the tourist comes to him rather than the supplier taking his services to the consumer. Tourism can thus play a key role in poverty alleviation, bringing jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers in hotels, resorts and at cultural sites, as well as encouraging job creation in supply industries.
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09-Apr-2008
Following a prolonged period of stagnation, Germany has been enjoying a vigorous recovery. Business and government finances are robust, laying a solid foundation for a continuation of the upswing provided that headwinds from the global financial market turmoil do not become overwhelming.
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07-Apr-2008
The Japanese economy is experiencing the longest expansion in its post-war history, and growth is projected to continue at a 1½ to 2% rate over the next two years. This expansion has been largely driven by buoyant business investment and strong export growth, especially to other Asian countries. Moving forward, Japan faces a number of challenges to sustained growth, most notably persistent deflation, a large and growing public debt and widening disparities between different segments of the economy.
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07-Apr-2008
How much does the environment affect human health? Are air pollution and tainted water shortening our lives and those of our children? These questions have aroused increasing interest in recent years, particularly since the adoption of Agenda 21 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which drew the attention of policy makers to the links between health and the environment.
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01-Apr-2008
Tight budgets and demanding citizens put governments under increasing pressure to show that they are providing good value for money. Providing information about public sector performance can satisfy the public’s need to know, and could also be a useful tool for governments to evaluate their performance.
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28-Feb-2008
Following significant structural reforms and foreign direct investment projects, the Icelandic economy enjoyed several years of rapid expansion, which entailed major internal and external imbalances. While growth has slowed and imbalances have diminished, the adjustment process has been uneven, with wage developments, improving financial conditions and government measures rekindling demand and inflation pressures during the course of 2007.
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