Business / SOURCE REPORTTourism has been the main source of income for many small island economies for decades. It brought jobs, investment and foreign currency, and it made those economies dependent on a single, volatile sector. The pandemic showed how quickly that dependence can become a vulnerability, and several governments are now asking what a more resilient economy […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTInsurance works by spreading risk across many policyholders so that no single loss is ruinous. Climate change strains that model: when a hazard becomes more frequent, the losses stop being unusual and the arithmetic no longer holds. In several exposed regions, insurers have raised premiums, tightened terms or withdrawn entirely. When private insurance retreats, the […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTAfrica’s continental free trade area is one of the largest trading arrangements in the world by number of participating countries. It promises to lower tariffs, simplify rules and connect markets that have historically traded more with distant partners than with their neighbours. The agreement is in force, and its practical effect is still small. The […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTFor decades, multinational companies could reduce their tax bills by booking profits in jurisdictions with low rates, regardless of where the activity took place. A global minimum tax is designed to blunt that strategy by setting a floor on the rate companies pay on their worldwide income. The rules are complex, and their effect is […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTMost work in the world is informal. It happens without a contract, a payslip or a social security record, in small shops, on farms, in homes and on the street. Official statistics struggle to count it, which is why economic policy often overlooks the majority of the workforce it is meant to serve. What informal […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTMost central banks are now somewhere between researching and piloting a digital version of their currency. The interest is real and the deployment is slow, and the gap between the two is instructive. A retail central bank digital currency would be a direct claim on the central bank, usable by households and firms, and it […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTRemittances — the money migrant workers send home — are among the largest financial flows into many developing economies, larger in some countries than foreign aid or foreign investment. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database tracks what it costs to send money, and the global average to send 200 dollars remains several times the […]
Business / SOURCE REPORTFAO's food price indices track internationally traded commodities. Transport, currency, market structure and policy create the gap between global and local prices.
Business / SOURCE REPORTThe ILO's employment outlook looks beyond job counts to working poverty, informality, care work and social protection.
Business / SOURCE REPORTThe World Bank Enterprise Surveys capture firm-level constraints national totals miss — but the smallest and most informal firms are hardest to sample.