This brief looks at how projects to build entrepreneurial capacity and improve access to finance and equipment can strengthen the resilience of Mongolia’s micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Focusing on Pacific economies, this 2023 edition shows how micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) helped spur a robust recovery from the pandemic and why supporting their development is key to driving sustainable, inclusive growth.

Tax policy; value-added tax; consumer spending; pandemic; difference-in-differences; Lithanua

Bhutan’s schools maintained their relatively strong performance during the pandemic as access to remote learning, the opening of boarding facilities, and moves to prioritize education for secondary school pupils prevented performance gaps widening.

This edition shows how a modest improvement in economic fundamentals has buoyed East Asia’s local currency bond (LCY) markets, but potential renewed increases in inflation and further interest rate hikes could pose risks for the region’s borrowers.

Child poverty; COVID-19; Pandemic; Scarring; European Union; Labor policy; Social protection; Childcare; Barcelona Objectives; European Child Guarantee.

This edition presents recent developments in emerging East Asian local currency bond markets and features a special section about how increased climate risk awareness can influence investors’ trading decisions.

This edition notes slowing growth in the last quarter of 2022 in emerging East Asia’s local currency (LCY) bond market, though aggregate issuance of LCY bonds by these economies reached a record high in 2022.

Articles in this issue address topics that include the economics of investing in COVID-19 vaccines, and the impacts of finance and of population aging on Asia’s economic growth.

This policy note provides suggestions to help increase youth employment in the PRC following the pandemic, including retooling the education system to meet demand for skills in the “new economy”, expanding the labor capacity of the service sector, and developing labor markets in rural areas.

This report shows how smart trade and investment policies, and regulatory cooperation in the Asia and Pacific region can help economies tackle climate change, recover from the pandemic, and support resilient and sustainable development.