Recent news that the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) is thinking of lending to Sub-Saharan Africa shows how institutions evolve to find new goals rather than quietly close down. The EBRD, which I believe enjoys a high reputation in the development finance world, is a multilateral financial institution set up in 1991 to… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: development
Are we heading for a world like that of “1984”?
I think the world may be fragmenting into increasingly separate economic and cultural regions, one dominated by China, another led but not dominated by the US, with other nations watching and wondering how best to position themselves. This reminds me of the novel 1984. * When people refer to a world like that in George… Continue Reading
Socially useful finance
Evidence from Nigeria shows that access to finance can help households reduce the impact of bad luck, reducing the fall in consumption that they suffer. * Yesterday I was part of a group discussing a draft research paper on the ethics of banking, prepared for the Cambridge Judge Business School Centre for Compliance and Trust. I… Continue Reading
Africa and the “resource curse”
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is abundantly endowed with natural resources, whose value has increased in recent decades. But this has not led to increased benefits for the majority of the people. A recent IMF working paper sheds more light on the challenge of making Africa’s wealth work for most Africans. Ahead of the forthcoming annual Cambridge… Continue Reading
What has gone wrong with India?
The fall in the Indian rupee in the last few weeks is a result of three things: i) a current account deficit that made the country vulnerable to a sudden exit of funds; ii) the inherent volatility and instability of international capital flows; and iii) the global change in attitudes to risk, especially in emerging… Continue Reading