The Changing Trade Landscape: Trade Agreements, Globalization and Inequality

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2016/09/14/the-changing-trade-landscape-trade-agreements-globalization-and-inequality

Doing Business 2016 : Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency

Doing Business 2016 is the 13th publication in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 189 economies. This year the publication addresses regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity including: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting minority investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Resolving insolvency. Doing Business 2016 updates all indicators as of June 1, 2015, ranks economies on their overall ease of doing business, and analyzes reforms to business regulation–identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. This report illustrates how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. It is a flagship product produced by the World Bank Group that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies have used the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 2,100 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22771

International debt statistics - 2016

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/23328/9781464806810.pdf

World Development Indicators 2016

The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

https://issuu.com/world.bank.publications/docs/9781464806834?e=0/35179276

Little data book
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23968

After the Commodities Boom – What's Next?

A special analysis in June 2015's Global Economic Prospectsfinds that low-income countries, many of which depend on commodity exports and investment, are vulnerable in the current environment.

During the commodity price boom of the mid-2000s, these economies strengthened considerably with new discoveries of key metals and minerals, rising investment in resources, and expanding commodity exports. However, the medium-term outlook is looking increasingly challenging. Prospects are for a protracted adjustment to lower- and more-volatile commodity prices, weaker demand for exports, and reduced resource investment and production in the next few years. Risks are significant and tilted to the downside. This puts a premium on policies to build buffers that can ease the transition, and on reforms that support growth in the non-resource sector.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects/Global-Economic-Prospects-June-2015-Special-Analysis-after-the-commodities-boom

The U.S. Interest Rate Liftoff: What are the Risks?

With an expected liftoff in U.S. interest rates, there may be some modest pressures on financial conditions and capital flows for emerging and developing economies over the coming months, says the June 2015 issue of Global Economic Prospects. This process is expected to unfold relatively smoothly since the US economic recovery is continuing and interest rates remain low in other major global economies.

However, there are considerable risks around this expectation, the report argues. Just as the initial discussion about U.S. policy normalization caused turmoil in financial markets in 2013 – now referred to as the "taper tantrum" – the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate increase and subsequent tightening cycle since the global financial crisis could ignite market volatility and reduce capital flows to emerging markets by up to 1.8 percentage points of GDP, the report says.

This would especially hurt emerging markets with greater vulnerabilities and weakening growth prospects. For commodity-exporting emerging markets that are already struggling to adjust to persistently low commodity prices, or for countries experiencing policy uncertainty, a slowdown in capital flows would add to their policy challenges.

http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/GEP/GEP2015b/Global-Economic-Prospects-June-2015-Rising-US-interest-rates.pdf