Publication:
Maldives - Country Economic Update : Sustaining Robust Development

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (5.42 MB)
135 downloads
English Text (221.41 KB)
41 downloads
Published
2004-12-15
ISSN
Date
2013-07-23
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The people of the Maldives have made substantial progress over the past two decades, as reflected in rising incomes and improving social indicators. This report provides an update on this progress, with an integrative analysis of the Maldivian economy, including recent economic developments, macroeconomic policies, and prospects for growth and poverty reduction. In seeking to become an upper middle income country, the Government of Maldives (GoM) will need to address several key development issues while managing the associated fiscal impacts, which is a core theme of the report. These issues include mitigating vulnerability, fostering private sector led growth, strengthening land management and housing finance, developing focus islands to lower the marginal cost of service provision, and improving fiscal systems.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2004. Maldives - Country Economic Update : Sustaining Robust Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14516 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Maldives
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-09-01) World Bank Group
    Maldives is an island nation scattered in the Indian Ocean comprising 1,190 small coral islands of which 190 are inhabited by a local population of 341,000. Maldives’ unique archipelagic coral island provides the country with an extremely rich and diverse marine ecological system. With more territorial sea than land, marine resources have played a vital role shaping the contours of economic development, with nature-based tourism being the key driver of economic growth and fisheries an important sector of employment for the local population. Maldives developed a successful high-end tourism sector, whose sizeable rents have been redistributed to the population to address its development challenges. This systematic country diagnostic for Maldives aims at identifying the most critical constraints and opportunities facing the country as it works towards promoting sustainable growth, reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. In addition to serving as a public good for the government, civil society, research and academic community, and local and international development partners, the findings of the SCD will be used as key inputs in the preparation of the WBG strategy, the Country Partnership Framework, which will outline how the Bank Group’s engagement in Maldives can best contribute towards achieving the twin goals.
  • Publication
    Lesotho
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-25) World Bank Group
    Lesotho is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world. It is a small, mostly mountainous, and largely rural country of about 2 million people, completely surrounded by South Africa. The persistence of poverty and rising inequality are striking for an economy that grew at annual rates of 4 percent per capita over the past decade. Redefining the role of the state will be critical for meeting the twin goals through boosting inclusive growth and avoiding macroeconomic and social risks. In this context, this Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) is intended to assess development challenges and identify priorities for rapid progress in achieving the objectives of: (i) eliminating extreme poverty on a sustainable basis and (ii) ensuring shared prosperity by improving the welfare of Lesotho’s poorer citizens. The report analyzes the opportunities and challenges in meeting these objectives, focusing on growth, inclusiveness, and sustainability. The SCD concludes by prioritizing the key challenges. Lesotho has an opportunity to eradicate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity in coming years. It will require shifting to a growth model led by an export-oriented private sector, fortified by higher skilled, more productive, and more entrepreneurial individuals, households, and firms. Lesotho cannot realize this new growth model without redefining the role of the state. For this new model to develop, strong political consensus is necessary to push the difficult reforms needed.
  • Publication
    Maldives : Public Expenditure Review
    (2002-12-06) World Bank
    The unifying theme of the public expenditure review is the growth and poverty focus of public expenditures, evolving around the question of how effective public expenditures are in addressing Maldives' overriding objective of reducing regional disparities and income poverty, particularly in the outer atolls. Since macroeconomic stability is a key prerequisite for sustained high economic growth and poverty reduction, the soundness of the fiscal framework and the issues of fiscal sustainability and contingent liabilities are examined in Chapter 2. The latter chapter also looks at the allocation of public expenditures along the key economic categories as well as by major sectoral/functional break-down, with specific recommendations for reform measures. Chapter 3 focuses on the institutional issues and challenges faced in public expenditure management, including the coordination of decision making and budgeting, planning and service delivery, and monitoring and evaluation. Sectoral allocations of public expenditures are evaluated in Chapter 4, with particular focus on education, health, and infrastructure. Sectoral public expenditures are evaluated in terms of their rationale for public sector intervention; determining the appropriate instrument for achieving technical efficiency; and their impacts/outcomes. Chapter 5 concludes by summing up overall reform priorities and discussing planned next steps and follow-up support activities to implement recommendations.
  • Publication
    Poverty in India : The Challenge of Uttar Pradesh
    (Washington, DC, 2002-05-08) World Bank
    The report analyzes poverty incidence in India and in particular, in Uttar Pradesh (UP), and defines its poverty levels, trends, and vulnerability. While UP once appeared positioned to be the pace-setter for India's economic, and social development in light of its rich potential in human, and natural resources, economic growth faltered in the 1990s. UP fell behind India's better performing states, and, despite a recent acceleration in growth suggesting the state's performance has been arrested, problems still remain. The report documents poverty along a number of dimensions, i.e., material and human deprivation, where poverty, if measured in terms of material deprivation, is high, and progress at reducing it, has been uneven over the past two decades. Statistics regarding human deprivation, reveal averages, e.g., in literacy well below the all-India average, likewise in female literacy, while mortality rates indicate a much higher ratio than in the country as a whole. Chapter 2 reviews the causes of poverty, stipulating poverty is caused by a scarcity of private assets, where ineffective social programs prevail. Governance, and the policy challenges are examined in Chapter 3, addressing the need to transform UP's public sector, through administrative and civil services reforms to reduce fragmentation, with complementary reforms at the sector levels to improve regulation. To achieve economic growth, Chapter 4 provides recommendations that include improvements in the investment climate, accelerated growth in rural areas, and corrections in gender bias, while Chapter 5 stresses on improving the quality, and access to social services, and safety nets.
  • Publication
    Timor-Leste
    (Washington, DC, 2009-07) World Bank
    The Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) for Timor-Leste identifies environmental priorities through a systematic review of environmental issues in natural resources management and environmental health in the context of the country's economic development and environmental institutions. Lack of data has been the main limitation in presenting a more rigorous analysis. Nevertheless, the report builds on the best available secondary data, presents new data on the country's wealth composition, and derives new results on the costs of water and air pollution. The CEA calls for urgent attention to gaps in the environmental management framework, the lack of capacity to implement the few regulations in place, and the high cost of indoor air pollution and poor water, sanitation, and hygiene. Timor-Leste is a young country that regained independence in 2002, and it has emerged from a bitter past burdened by colonialism and violent conflicts. It is still a fragile state facing enormous challenges. The report also points out the lack of clean water, appropriate sanitation, and hygiene as an environmental priority. The CEA estimates that this imposes an economic cost of about $17 million per year by way of illness and premature death. The CEA also looks at outdoor air pollution and at natural resource management for land, forestry, and coastal and marine resources. Outdoor air pollution is not a serious problem for the time being, but it could become so in the long run if the economy grows rapidly, urbanization continues, heavy industry emerges, and motorization increases rapidly. This underlines the need for good forward territorial and development planning. In conclusion, much good work has already been done to enhance the quality of the environment in Timor-Leste. Efforts are under way to improve the data base for environmental management.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, June 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-11) World Bank
    After several years of negative shocks, global growth is expected to hold steady in 2024 and then edge up in the next couple of years, in part aided by cautious monetary policy easing as inflation gradually declines. However, economic prospects are envisaged to remain tepid, especially in the most vulnerable countries. Risks to the outlook, while more balanced, are still tilted to the downside, including the possibility of escalating geopolitical tensions, further trade fragmentation, and higher-for-longer interest rates. Natural disasters related to climate change could also hinder activity. Subdued growth prospects across many emerging market and developing economies and continued risks underscore the need for decisive policy action at the global and national levels. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.
  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Sourcebook on the Foundations of Social Protection Delivery Systems
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-07-30) Lindert, Kathy; Karippacheril, Tina George; Rodriguez Caillava, Inés; Nishikawa Chavez, Kenichi; Lindert, Kathy; Karippacheril, Tina George; Rodriguez Caillava, Inés; Nishikawa Chavez, Kenichi
    The Sourcebook synthesizes real-world experiences and lessons learned of social protection delivery systems from around the world, with a particular focus on social and labor benefits and services. It takes a practical approach, seeking to address concrete “how-to” questions, including: How do countries deliver social protection benefits and services? How do they do so effectively and efficiently? How do they ensure dynamic inclusion, especially for the most vulnerable and needy? How do they promote better coordination and integration—not only among social protection programs but also programs in other parts of government? How can they meet the needs of their intended populations and provide a better client experience? The Sourcebook structures itself around eight key principles that can frame the delivery systems mindset: (1) delivery systems evolve over time, do so in a non-linear fashion, and are affected by the starting point(s); (2) additional efforts should be made to “do simple well”, and to do so from the start rather than trying to remedy by after-the-fact adding-on of features or aspects; (3) quality implementation matters, and weaknesses in the design or structure of any core system element will negatively impact delivery; (4) defining the “first mile” for people interface greatly affects the system and overall delivery, and is most improved when that “first mile” is understood as the weakest link in delivery systems); (5) delivery systems do not operate in a vacuum and thus should not be developed in silos; (6) delivery systems can contribute more broadly to government’s ability to intervene in other sectors, such as health insurance subsidies, scholarships, social energy tariffs, housing benefits, and legal services; (7) there is no single blueprint for delivery systems, but there are commonalities and those common elements constitute the core of the delivery systems framework; (8) inclusion and coordination are pervasive and perennial dual challenges, and they contribute to the objectives of effectiveness and efficiency.