This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Global Economic Prospects, a World Bank Group flagship report prepared by the Prospects Group in the Development Economics Vice Presidency.
In the early 1970s, the World Bank started producing notes on “Prospects for Developing Countries.” These began to be made public in the late 1970s. In 1991, the outlook section of the World Development Report was converted into a stand-alone report. In May 1991, the first Global Economic prospects report—called “Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries”—was launched as a formal publication for wide dissemination.
Since its inception in 1991, the Global Economic Prospects report has examined international economic developments and the outlook for growth, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies. It has analyzed a wide range of topical macroeconomic, financial, and structural policy challenges these economies face.
Emerging markets and developing economies had an extremely challenging period in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, many of today’s difficulties appear to be echoes of the 1991 edition:
“Today, rising uncertainties from different, yet related, directions portend difficulties to come… Individually, none of these dark economic clouds would be sufficient to dampen the short-term prospects for the world economy. But together they present compelling evidence that the world economy is in for a turbulent period in the short term.”
“… The impact of external circumstances on developing countries will depend crucially on how individual countries manage these contingencies. Policies in industrial countries will need to be sensitive to the concerns of “emerging and developing countries” and make it easier for them to restore momentum to the growth process. This would be especially important for low-income countries that have relatively few strategic options open to them for sustained development.”
Global Economic Prospects, May 1991