Europe and Central Asia Multimedia Library

This report responds to a specific request from the Serbian Minister of Finance. In the face of slowing economic growth, the Government faces the prospect of increasing deficits in the short and medium term, due largely to growing pension obligations. The problem cannot be addressed by increasing revenues: the public sector is already oversized. The Ministry of Finance has therefore asked the Bank to identify opportunities for constraining growth in expenditures, without sacrificing the quality of public services. This report is therefore focused on identifying opportunities for efficiency gains in the major categories of Government expenditure.

The countries in the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region, among all emerging and developing economy regions, are forecast to experience the deepest contraction as a result of the global economic recession of 2008–09. This is partly due to the region’s deep integration into the global economy across many dimensions—trade, financial, and labor flows.

A number of countries in the ECA region have experienced increasing inflows from migrant worker remittances over the past several years and it has been observed that the economic growth and poverty reduction achievements in most countries have been intertwined with these trends.

This is the first GDLN session in a series of four events that focus on the H1N1pandemic response in ECA countries. This session will address H1N1 Human Health issues with a focus on Clinical Management.

Road traffic has increased in Bulgaria following its accession to the EU in 2007. The increase has meant increases in accidents and expenditure for those who depend on good roads for their livelihood. Bulgaria is now moving to upgrade its roads with the help of international donors.

DEC sponsored an International conference on Diaspora and Development, focusing on how the Diaspora can be leveraged for trade, investments, skill and technology transfer. Luca Barbone, Sector Director, ECSPE, Europe and Central Asia Region, World Bank Group, chairs Session VII.

The objective of this session is to understand some of the innovations in improving the flow of remittances, reducing the cost and enabling unskilled labor migrants to understand better and exploit the cost effective and safe transmission channels that exist. The event will link once again with Philippines to investigate what that country has done in relation to the countries where their migrants live in order to improve the link between financial institutions and migrants.

The objective of this session is to understand some of the innovations in improving the flow of remittances, reducing the cost and enabling unskilled labor migrants to understand better and exploit the cost effective and safe transmission channels that exist. The event will link once again with Philippines to investigate what that country has done in relation to the countries where their migrants live in order to improve the link between financial institutions and migrants.

This session will focus on the ways in which the global financial crisis has affected the region, and what policies should be deployed to best manage the crisis.

Press briefing on the effects of the global economy on Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries presented by Indermit Gill, the chief economist of the Europe and Central Asia regional division of the World Bank