The World Bank's twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects (GEP) examines growth trends for the global economy and how they affect developing countries. The reports include three-year forecasts for the global economy as well as relevant scenarios. Topical annexes in this online publication cover industrial production, inflation, financial markets, trade, exchange rates and commodity markets.

Andrew Burns, Lead Author of Global Economic Prospects will present the analysis contained in the latest edition of Global Economic Prospects, including a view on how winding down stimulus efforts in the United States will impact developing countries, even as advanced economies turn the corner in the wake of the 2007/08 financial crisis. He will provide insights into recent developments in key developing economies and the impact these will have on global growth. Highlights regarding the economic prospects of all of the developing regions – East  Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa – will be covered.

Program    
   

• Opening Remarks       
  Yasusuke Tsukagoshi, Special Representative, Japan, World Bank
• Presentation               
  Andrew Burns, Manager, Development Prospects Group
• Commentary               
  Dr. Shujiro Urata, Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University/ Specially Appointed Fellow, Japan Center for Economic Research
• Q & A’s 

Speakers

Andrew Burns
Manager, Development Prospects Group

Andrew Burns is Acting Director of the Development Prospects Group at the World Bank. He is also the lead author of Global Economic Prospects.

Before joining the World Bank, Andrew was Head of Desk for Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and France at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he supervised and wrote the OECD's Economic Surveys for these countries. He also played a lead role in the OECD's Jobs Study, overseeing the evaluation of labor market policies in each of the organization's 30 member countries. Prior to joining the OECD, Andrew worked at the Economic Council of Canada where he wrote on labor market and macroeconomic issues. He holds degrees from the University of Manitoba and McGill University in Canada.       

Shujiro Urata
Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University

Shujiro Urata is Professor of Economics at Graduate School Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University. He is also Research Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research (JCER), Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), and Senior Research Adviser for the Executive Director of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) in Jakarta. Professor Urata received his B.A. in Economics from Keio University in 1973 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University in 1976 and 1978. He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution, an Economist at the World Bank. He specializes in International Economics and Economics of Development. He has held a number of research and advisory positions including senior advisor to the Government of Indonesia, consultant to the World Bank, OECD, the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Japan. He published and edited a number of books on international economic issues and is an author and co-author of numerous articles in professional journals. His book publications in English include Competitiveness, FDI and Technological Activity in East Asia, co-editor, Edward Elgar, 2003, Bilateral Trade Agreements: Origins, evolution, and implications, co-editor, Routledge, 2005, Multinationals and Economic Growth in East Asia, co-editor, Routledge, 2006, Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific, co-editor, World Scientific, 2010, Economic Consequences of Globalization: Evidence from East Asia, co-editor, Routledge,2012 and others.