Growth and Stability During Crises

In his speech from Niamey, Niger, World Bank Group President David Malpass addressed the challenges facing development policy, including the need for macroeconomic stability, the importance of private capital to international integration, and the increasing need to support global public goods.

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Gas Flaring

Global Gas Flaring Falls to Lowest Level Since 2010

Progress in reducing gas flaring resumed in 2022, with gas flared worldwide falling by 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 139 bcm, its lowest level since 2010, according to new satellite data compiled by the World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR). Three countries, Nigeria, Mexico, and the United States, accounted for most of the decline in global gas flaring in 2022. Two other countries—Kazakhstan and Colombia— stand out for consistently reducing flaring volumes in the last seven years.

Food Security

Latest Food Security Update

Our latest update from March 23 shows that domestic food price inflation remains high in almost all low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Since the last update on March 9, 2023, the agricultural, cereal, and export price indices closed 3 percent, 2 percent, and 2 percent lower, respectively.

New Report

Global Economy’s “Speed Limit” Set to Fall to Three-Decade Low

The global economy’s “speed limit”—the maximum long-term rate at which it can grow without sparking inflation—is set to slump to a three-decade low by 2030. A World Bank report—Falling Long-Term Growth Prospects: Trends, Expectations, and Policies—shows that an ambitious policy push can boost productivity, ramp up investment, and harness the potential of the services sector.

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Food security is defined when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

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Climate change, poverty, and inequality are the defining issues of our age. The World Bank Group is the biggest multilateral funder of climate investments in developing countries.

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Data

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More than half of all reforms captured were implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa region by seven economies

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In 2022, the global average score on the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law index rose just half a point to 77.1—indicating women, on average, enjoy barely 77 percent of the legal rights that men do. At the current pace of reform, in many countries a woman entering the workforce today will retire before she will be able to gain the same rights as men, the report notes. This year, 18 countries enacted 34 reforms, the lowest number of reforms in 20 years. But more than half of all reforms captured were implemented in the Sub-Saharan Africa region by seven economies. Learn More.

Globally, roughly half of working age women participate in the labor force, which is significantly lower than the male labor force participation rate of around 80%. This gap is virtually unchanged from what it was three decades ago. And there are sizeable differences in the level of female labor force participation across regions. Moreover, women tend to face inferior income opportunities and on average earn less than men. Explore more aspects of female labor force participation through this data story.

According to the latest statistics (see below), more than one in five women were first married before the age of 18, with the practice of child marriage being most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Beyond being a human rights violation, child marriage also greatly undermines women’s and girls’ economic opportunities. It limits child brides’ access to education, reduces their future earnings, jeopardizes their health, and puts them at a heightened risk of domestic violence. Data on the economic impacts of child marriage provide the foundation for advocacy campaigns to end the practice. Learn more.