Economic development

Free exchange: Humbler horizons

America’s economy is growing at an unimpressive rate. It may not be able to go much faster(13)

Daily chart: A rebalancing act

Levelling out competitiveness in the euro area will be costly(127)

Banking in the developing world: The poor are different

HOW many people in the world have bank accounts and what do they use them for? You would think there would be answers to those questions, given that banking is the quintessentially global business, and is important not only in the West but in developing countries, where banks can help poor people save, borrow and invest. Yet, until now, data on the global reach of financial institutions have been limited. The IMF publishes a financial access survey of depositors and borrowers. But there is little about how much people save or why they borrow. Especially little is known about the banking practices of the poor, women and young people. So a big data hole got plugged last year when the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup World Poll carried out the biggest survey yet of how people save, borrow, make payments and manage risk. The results have just appeared(42)

Daily chart: Lost time

How many years of economic output has the rich world lost?(79)

Germany’s economic model: What Germany offers the world

Other countries would love to import Germany’s economic model. But its way of doing things is a lot less amenable to export than the wares it produces(270)

Focus: World GDP

Annals of development: Dangerous delusions

How poor countries misread Singapore’s success(243)

British aid to India: The last mile

The pace of economic development revives old questions about the purpose of charity(297)

Buttonwood: Emerging appetites

A debt boom that actually makes sense(1)

India's census results: Just getting by

The two-thirds who remain in the countryside have seen few benefits from the past decade's modernisations. But smaller family sizes may be on the way to changing that(126)

Global poverty: A fall to cheer

For the first time ever, the number of poor people is declining everywhere(69)

Focus: Development in Asia

Asia Pacific's Millennium Development Goals(2)

Daily chart: Where not to be a toddler

How child-mortality rates have changed since 1970(94)

Strange bedfellows in Bangladesh: Bridge-mending

The prime minister makes an uncharacteristic reversal(58)

Focus: Borrowing in Asia

Cross-border bank lending to Asia’s developing economies has been shrinking recently(0)

Afghanistan: Violating the prime directive again

By spending so much in Afghanistan, America may have ruined it(74)