Healthcare costs are rising so fast in advanced economies that they will become unaffordable by mid-century without reforms, according to a new OECD report.

World Cancer Day: Where do OECD countries stand in the “war against cancer”?

This paper looks at recent trends in pharmaceutical spending across OECD countries. It examines the drivers of recent spending trends, highlighting differences across therapeutic classes, and then looks at emerging challenges for policy makers in the management of pharmaceutical spending.

The OECD is launching an online consultation: tell us how we can improve sustainable access to innovative therapies!

Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) are commonly used to convert national currencies to a common unit. The main novel feature in the 2017 report is the collection of comparable and output-based prices for hospital services that can then be applied to matching health accounts expenditure data so as to derive consistent price and volume comparisons of health and hospital goods and services consumed.

Mental disorders represent a considerable disease burden, and have a significant impact on the lives of the OECD population, and account for considerable direct and indirect costs. This report argues that even in those OECD countries with a long history of deinstitutionalisation, there is still a long way to go to make community-based mental health care that achieves good outcomes for people with severe mental illness a reality.

Healthier lifestyles, higher incomes and better education have all contributed to boost life expectancy in recent decades. Better health care has also helped, according to a new OECD report.

This note highlights the most pressing issues on families and children in Australia, as discussed in the OECD publication Doing Better for Families.

Skills and educational development for inclusive and sustainable growth are becoming significant drivers in OECD countries.

Slower growth in key markets like China and India is reducing momentum across the Australian economy, cutting into employment opportunities and putting more pressure on the government to ensure that public policy delivers optimal results for growth and job creation.

Global Value Chains (GVCs) are a dominant feature of the world economy that impact growth, jobs and development, but numerous challenges remain to ensure that all countries and all firms have the opportunity to participate and benefit.

These graphs offer a brief summary of the commodity trade situation in the country.

The most attractive OECD countries for highly qualified potential immigrants are Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada, in part because of favourable admission and stay conditions.

Cities can generate growth and jobs while becoming greener – this is the message of the OECD’s new Green Growth in Cities report. Drawing on case studies of Paris, Chicago, Kitakyushu and Stockholm, the report identifies green policies that can respond to urban growth priorities and suggests how to implement and finance them.

A moderate recovery is underway in the major advanced economies, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment. Growth is proceeding at encouraging rates in North America, Japan and the UK. The euro area as a whole is out of recession, although output remains weak in a number of countries.

Japan has increased its spending on overseas development assistance (ODA) and is showing more global leadership, but needs to pay more attention to where it is spending the money and increase its focus on results and transparency.

Agriculture is a provider of commodities such as food, feed, fibre and fuel, and it can bring both positive and negative impacts on the environment. Yet most policy measures target farm systems, inputs and practices and agricultural infrastructure (driving forces) rather than the provision of agri-environmental public goods (environmental outcomes).

These graphs offer a brief summary of the commodity trade situation in the country.

Japan must improve job quality and further reform the mandatory retirement age to address upfront the challenges of its rapidly ageing and shrinking labour force, according to a new OECD report.

Japan’s agriculture sector has traditionally been characterised by small-scale rice production, but has recently begun to respond to new market opportunities for higher value food products across a rapidly growing East Asia. Today, rice represents less than 20% of the value of agriculture production, and larger, more productive, and more profitable farm businesses now account for more than half of total agriculture output.

At their Summit in Osaka this weekend, G20 leaders agreed on a range of priorities for which analysis and support from the OECD and other international organisations are playing a crucial role.

Cpi Housing Utilities in Luxembourg decreased to 103.52 points in April from 105.45 points in March of 2020. Cpi Housing Utilities in Luxembourg averaged 101.92 points from 2015 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 107.16 points in January of 2020 and a record low of 97.48 points in April of 2016. This page provides - Luxembourg Cpi Housing Utilities- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Imports of Chemical & Allied Industries Products in South Africa increased to 9913.50 ZAR Million in March from 9806.22 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Imports of Chemical & Allied Industries Products in South Africa averaged 9515.36 ZAR Million from 2014 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 13357.99 ZAR Million in October of 2018 and a record low of 7160.89 ZAR Million in June of 2014. This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Imports of Chemical & Allied Industries Products.

Cpi Housing Utilities in Myanmar increased to 200.49 points in February from 200.12 points in January of 2020. Cpi Housing Utilities in Myanmar averaged 135.41 points from 2013 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 200.49 points in February of 2020 and a record low of 103.93 points in January of 2013. This page provides - Myanmar Cpi Housing Utilities- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

As a further sign of international efforts to crack down on tax offenders, 12 more countries have signed, or committed to sign, the OECD’s Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. In addition, another 6 countries have ratified the Convention.

Cpi Housing Utilities in Morocco increased to 117.70 points in March from 117.60 points in February of 2020. Cpi Housing Utilities in Morocco averaged 110.13 points from 2008 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 117.70 points in October of 2019 and a record low of 103.30 points in November of 2008. This page provides - Morocco Cpi Housing Utilities- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The OECD/INFE High level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education provide international guidance to policy makers with a view to developing evidence-based, co-ordinated and tailored approaches to financial education, both in emerging markets and more advanced economies. G20 Leaders recognised the important role of financial education policies when they endorsed these Principles in 2012.

OECD countries are intensifying their fiscal consolidation efforts, introducing additional measures and extending the time horizon to implement them. Most have announced fiscal consolidation of more than 3% of GDP over the period 2009-15, according to the OECD’s Restoring Public Finances 2012.

The financial crisis has shown that many people need to have a better understanding of the financial issues in order to make informed decisions on matters such as savings, investments, pensions and credit, according to a report to be presented to G20 leaders in Saint Petersburg this week.

This paper investigates whether countries that had controls on inflows in place prior to the crisis were less vulnerable during the global financial crisis. More generally, it examines economic growth effects of such controls over the entire economic cycle, finding that capital restrictions on inflows (particularly debt liabilities) may be useful in good times but may have adverse effects in a crisis.

This article presents a brief overview of current financing difficulties for SMEs and policy measures to support SME lending during the crisis, and presents a literature review related to difficulties in SME’s access to finance during the crisis, against a background of a sharp decline in bank profitability and an erosion of bank capital that negatively affected lending.

This G20 report looks at the evolution of private institutional investment in infrastructure and examines how the market has developed; analyses various investment vehicles with a snapshot of the growth experienced in the market; categorises methods used for investing in infrastructure; and, highlights the challenges and barriers to investment.

Money remitted by international migrants is a major source of income for many countries. Yet individual migrants and their families are often amongst the most vulnerable people in society, and many face significant barriers to the access and use of appropriate financial products. This paper looks at key challenges and how governments can take measures to support migrant workers and their families and improve their financial literacy.

In this issue of "Pension Funds in Figures", preliminary data and early estimates for 2014 show that pension funds’ assets exceeded USD 25 trillion in OECD countries. The largest increases are found in Estonia, Korea, Luxembourg and Turkey, where pension funds’ assets rose by more than 20% compared to...

This chapter from the 2015 OECD Business and Finance Outlook examines the potential impact of an environment of protracted low interest rates on pension systems and life insurance companies. It describes the mechanisms through which prolonged low interest rates can affect the solvency position of these institutions and uses available data to assess potential impacts.

This stocktaking report profiles the tax treatment of funded private pension plans across all OECD and EU countries. The information refers to 2015 or the latest year with available data and covers all types of funded private pension plans in each country.

29 October 2015, Paris - Resilient cities and SMEs are critical to reducing the economic disruption from climate-related disaster events. In the run up to COP21, these remarks by Adrian Blundell-Wignall at the AXA-UNEP-PSI Conference on Climate Resilience address the importance of building resilience to climate change risks at the level of cities and SMEs.

The OECD has produced assessments of country-specific investment strategies in G20 countries in order to improve the investment ecosystem, foster efficient infrastructure investment and support financing opportunities for SMEs. This booklet reproduces the highlights of these assessments which have been transmitted to G20 leaders for consideration at their Summit in November 2015..

This document outlines the objectives and key components of the framework, and presents the flexible, outcome-based, core competencies framework itself. The framework is designed to be applicable to youth aged 15 to 18, describing the basic level of financial literacy that is likely to be needed by this group to fully and safely participate in economic and financial life.

Financial literacy has become a key life skill for individuals as well as micro and small businesses. Today, 59 economies worldwide are implementing national strategies using guidance from the OECD/INFE High-level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education. The Policy Handbook describes the experiences of these economies and addresses challenges that countries have faced in implementing the Principles.

This article on public equity financing for SMEs complements earlier OECD work on market-based finance for SMEs. The development of this market segment could promote investment in SMEs and, together with securitisation and other non-bank debt financing instruments, encourage an enhanced allocation of risk and risk taking, and thus support growth.

This report provides estimates of the costs associated with bank resolution both in terms of the expected costs that might arise should a bank fail (i.e. as "ex-post" costs), as well as the cost associated with the likelihood that a solvent bank might fail (i.e. as "ex-ante" costs) over the next year.

This document outlines the objectives and key components of the framework, and presents the flexible, outcome-based, core competencies framework itself. The framework is designed to be applicable to adults aged 18 and over, describing the basic level of financial literacy that is likely to be needed by this group to fully and safely participate in economic and financial life.

The core competencies frameworks on financial literacy highlight a range of financial literacy outcomes that may be considered important for adults, youth, or owners and managers of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and of potential entrepreneurs.The core competencies frameworks on financial literacy for youth and adults were developed in response to a call from G20 Leaders in 2013.

This report contains the results of an international data collection survey that measured the financial literacy and financial inclusion of adults. A total of 51,650 adults aged 18 to 79 from 30 countries and economies participated in the survey.

This paper explores the relationship between policy settings and extreme positive and negative growth events, what we call GDP tail risks, using quantile regression methods.

In 2014, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), in collaboration with the IMF and OECD, prepared a report for G20 leaders that sought to assess the cross-border consistencies and global financial stability implications of structural banking reform measures. To further examine structural banking reform measures taken since 2008, the OECD circulated a survey. This report describes the outcome of this survey.

Sovereign gross borrowing needs in the OECD area have continued to decline from the peaks attained in 2012. They are expected to be USD 9.5 trillion in 2017, approximately the same level as 2016.

Adopted by the OECD Council on 23 February 2017, this Recommendation provides high-level policy guidance for designing a strategy for addressing the financial impacts of disasters on individuals, businesses and sub-national levels of governments, as well as the implication for public finances.

This report describes the levels of financial literacy of adults in G20 countries and the Netherlands and Norway, guest countries under the G20 German Presidency. It was presented to G20 Leaders at their 2017 Summit meeting in Hamburg on 8 July 2017.