The overarching theme of the 2014 Global Forum, held in Tokyo on 2 and 3 October, was data-driven innovation for a resilient society. The event focused on the collection and use of data throughout the economy and society for enhanced growth and well-being.

The Japan-OECD Policy Forum on Urban Development and Green Growth will address cities’ unique role in creating synergies between environmental and economic objectives to advance green growth. Asian cities in particular are at the centre of this challenge. This event is organised as a commemorative event for the 50th Anniversary of Japan's Accession to the OECD.

Japan could help laid-off workers find a job more quickly by improving co-ordination between public employment services and companies, as well as ensuring that all workers benefit from adequate Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, according to a new OECD report.

Low oil prices and monetary easing are boosting growth in the world’s major economies, but the near-term pace of expansion remains modest, withabnormally low inflation and interest rates pointing to risks of financial instability, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment.

Achieving strong growth in the global economy remains elusive, with only a modest recovery in advanced economies and slower activity in emerging markets, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

The Secretary-General presented OECD’s recent analysis and recommendations on the world economy, on more balanced and efficient financial markets for growth, and on progress on the international tax system. He also spoke at the G7 High-Level Symposium “Future of the Global Economy”, organised by the Japanese G7 Presidency.

The global economy is stuck in a low-growth trap that will require more coordinated and comprehensive use of fiscal, monetary and structural policies to move to a higher growth path and ensure that promises are kept to both young and old, according to the OECD’s latest Global Economic Outlook.

Biographical note of Japan's Permanent Representative to the OECD.

Banks Balance Sheet in Luxembourg increased to 1182739 EUR Million in November from 1166878 EUR Million in October of 2019. Banks Balance Sheet in Luxembourg averaged 1004696 EUR Million from 2001 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 1345434 EUR Million in October of 2008 and a record low of 711466 EUR Million in January of 2001. This page provides the latest reported value for - Luxembourg Banks Balance Sheet - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Exports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco in South Africa increased to 3490.92 ZAR Million in March from 2608.19 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Exports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco in South Africa averaged 2920.53 ZAR Million from 2014 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 4194.88 ZAR Million in October of 2018 and a record low of 1704.27 ZAR Million in January of 2015. This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Exports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco.

Trade Balance - Cumulative in South Africa increased to 12127.31 ZAR Million in March from -2986.13 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Trade Balance - Cumulative in South Africa averaged -64972.52 ZAR Million from 2013 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 12127.31 ZAR Million in March of 2020 and a record low of -198550.91 ZAR Million in December of 2014. This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Trade Balance - Cumulative.

Imports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco in South Africa increased to 2612.43 ZAR Million in March from 2292.20 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Imports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco in South Africa averaged 2502.29 ZAR Million from 2014 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 3674.84 ZAR Million in October of 2019 and a record low of 1707.09 ZAR Million in June of 2014. This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Imports of Prepared Foodstuffs Beverages & Tobacco.

Imports of Base Metals CMLV in South Africa increased to 14297.11 ZAR Million in March from 10137.77 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Imports of Base Metals CMLV in South Africa averaged 31234.09 ZAR Million from 2014 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 61201.96 ZAR Million in December of 2019 and a record low of 5160.26 ZAR Million in January of 2015. South Africa accounts for Imports of Base Metals using cumulative values for each year (CMLV). This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Imports of Base Metals CMLV.

Imports of Base Metals & Base Metal Articles in South Africa decreased to 4160.28 ZAR Million in March from 4777.41 ZAR Million in February of 2020. Imports of Base Metals & Base Metal Articles in South Africa averaged 4814.08 ZAR Million from 2014 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 5918.37 ZAR Million in January of 2019 and a record low of 3345.46 ZAR Million in December of 2019. This page includes a chart with historical data for South Africa Imports of Base Metals & Base Metal Articles.

Myanmar recorded a trade deficit of 66.30 USD Million in September of 2019. Balance of Trade in Myanmar averaged -206.88 USD Million from 2010 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 593.30 USD Million in August of 2011 and a record low of -948.50 USD Million in July of 2015. Myanmar had been trading mostly with neighboring countries due to political circumstances and poor infrastructure, but the change to democracy is likely to allow access to new markets. Oil and natural gas dominate Myanmar's exports. Other exports include vegetables, wood, fish, clothing, rubber and fruits. Myanmar mainly imports fuel, vegetable oil, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, construction equipment, polymers, tires and machinery. Myanmar's main trading partners are China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Germany and Hong-Kong. This page provides - Myanmar Balance of Trade - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has released peer review reports assessing the tax systems of 13 jurisdictions for information exchange.

Biographical note of Austria's Permanent Representative to the OECD.

Banks Balance Sheet in Morocco decreased to 1426031 MAD Million in February from 1431200 MAD Million in January of 2020. Banks Balance Sheet in Morocco averaged 872056.34 MAD Million from 2001 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 1448618 MAD Million in December of 2019 and a record low of 360422.93 MAD Million in March of 2002. This page provides - Morocco Banks Balance Sheet - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Europe's sovereign debt crisis has exposed structural weaknesses in economic governance that now threaten the entire euro region. Efforts to reinforce public finances and preserve the currency union must go further than solutions proposed to date.

This study models the distance-to-default (DTD) of a large sample of banks from 2004 to 2011 and examines the results from the perspective of policy approaches that aim to reduce the riskiness of banks.

Financial-market complexity shouldn't lead to crisis. There is a better, simpler way: Split the banks.

A complement to the OECD insurance database, this report monitors and analyses the insurance industry’s overall performance and health in OECD countries and Hong Kong (China), India, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand.

This report concludes that actual application of bail-ins, involving bondholders in loss sharing, could effectively reign in perceptions of implicit guarantees for bank debt. However, bail-ins are rare owing to concerns about contagion risks and depositor and investor protection, so implicit guarantees persist.

Big changes are needed to strengthen the capital positions of euro area banks. European banks remain at the heart of the euro area crisis. Despite actions to strengthen banks and build a banking union, confidence in the euro area banking system remains weak, and is likely to remain so until underlying concerns over low capitalisation of some banks are addressed.

This conference in Nairobi, Kenya, addressed specific issues relating to financial literacy in Africa and the MENA region. It presented the output of the Russia/OECD/World Bank Trust Fund on Financial Literacy and Education.

This conference, taking place on 4-5 March 2013 in New Delhi, India, addressed specific issues relating to financial literacy in India and the Asia region. It presented the output of the Russia/OECD/World Bank Trust Fund on Financial Literacy and Education.

This article summarises discussions from a financial roundtable addressing concerns about structural flaws in the way banks operate and are being regulated and supervised in the wake of on-going banking sector problems involving financial fraud and banking scandals.

This statement by Adrian Blundell-Wignall and Paul Atkinson was presented to the German Bundestag's Finance Committee Hearing on the Draft Bank-Separation Law (Drucksache 17/12601) on 22 April 2013.

The paper argues that interest rates are at extremely low levels to support banks, and the search for yield has pushed the liquidity driven speculative bubble from real estate, derivatives and structured products markets into the corporate debt market. Equities have rallied strongly too. This asset cycle is certainly helping banks reduce hidden losses on illiquid securities and could also help reduce the cost of equity.

The crisis has shown that there is no such thing as an optimal banking structure or model. The Liikanen report highlighted excessive risk taking and excessive reliance on short-term funding not matched with adequate capital protection. The French reform of the banking sector builds on this insight as well as the agreement reached by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the European CRD 4 to foster financial stability.

This conference in Moscow explored strategies for developing financial literacy and capability and building effective consumer protection systems.

Whether you blame poor regulation, sloppy governance, greed or bad luck, banks were frontline culprits in causing the crisis. Governments have been working on reforms to fix the financial sector and improve governance, but a lot more work remains to be done. Some OECD principles can help.

This database and book provide major official insurance statistics for all OECD countries including data on premiums collected, claims, commissions by type of insurance, investments by type of investment, and numbers of companies and employees.

The 2013 Global Forum focused on a number of critical policy, regulatory and supervisory issues affecting private and public pension provision in the Asia region.

The bank regulator's paradox is that large, complex and interconnected banks need very little capital in the good times, but they can never have enough in an extreme crisis. Separation is required to deal with this problem, which derives mainly from counterparty risk. This paper outlines the OECD’s separation proposal and also compares it to current national approaches to separation.

This paper looks at macro-prudential policies in the light of empirical evidence on the determinants of bank systemic risk, and the effectiveness of capital controls. It concludes that complexity and interdependence is such that care should be taken in implementing macro-prudential policies until much more is understood about these issues.

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.

The main hallmarks of the global financial crisis were too-big-to-fail institutions taking on too much risk with other people’s money: excess leverage and default pressure resulting from contagion and counterparty risk. This paper looks at whether the Basel III reforms address these issues effectively and proposes improvements to the current reform proposals.

Discussions at this event focused on enhancing transparency in public debt management, the impact of tapering and exit on public debt management, and the role of DMOs in centralised or integrated risk management.

This event, co-organised by the OECD and the Korean authorities, explored policies and good practices for supporting long-term savings and investments through financial education and financial consumer protection.

The value of implicit guarantees has declined from its peak at the height of the financial crisis, which is consistent with progress made regarding the bank regulatory reform agenda, as one would expect that many of the reform measures imply a more limited value of implicit guarantees for bank debt. Implicit guarantees persist however and their value continues to be significant.

Organised in Istanbul, this event focused on financial education across Europe and in Turkey, the role(s) of the private and not-for-profit sectors in financial education, financial literacy and innovation for young people and financial education for migrant workers and their families.

This report describes the key findings from responses by 35 countries to a survey on implicit guarantees. Policy makers have announced their intention to rein in the values of implicit guarantees so it is important to measure their value to help facilitate the task of assessing progress in reducing their value.

Bank regulatory reform measures are expected to limit the value of implicit bank debt guarantees, even if not plainly targeting such values. These survey results, covering 35 countries, show that no single policy is considered capable of fully eliminating the market perception that bank debt is “special”. A mixture of different and complementary measures is seen to hold greater promise.

2-3 October 2014, Swakopmund, Namibia: This event focused on the pension reform process in Africa, tax and the financial incentives that affect savings in complementary private pensions, and the role of pension funds in long-term investment financing and capital market development.

This article summarises discussions from an OECD Financial Roundtable on reducing bank dependence in financing small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-bank debt financing alternatives.

“Why do financial institutions and investors see so little risk, while companies investing in the real economy see so much risk?” This is perhaps the most important question facing policy makers today. This paper sets out some of the possible hypotheses for lack of investment in the world economy. It uses data drawn from 10 000 global companies in 75 advanced and emerging countries.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key contributors to economic growth and job creation. The current economic and financial crisis has reduced bank lending and has affected SMEs in particular. Capital markets will have to play a bigger role in financing SMEs in order to make them more resilient to financial shocks. This article reviews the spectrum of alternative market-based debt instruments for SME financing.

What are the economic effects of implicit bank debt guarantees and who ultimately benefits? This report sheds light on these questions

Written statement by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría for the IMFC during the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund 2015 Spring meetings in Washington, DC.