The Norwegian economy is performing well, generating inclusive growth, strong social mobility and low unemployment. But to ensure future prosperity, Norway must continue with growth-enhancing reforms while ensuring financial stability, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Norway.

Recovery is under way in the world’s advanced economies, underpinned by supportive financial conditions and reduced drag from budgetary tightening, but activity in the major emerging markets is mixed, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment.

The Czech economy is finally coming out of a prolonged recession but must take further steps to speed up income convergence towards the euro area countries, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of the Czech Republic.

This paper surveys recent international developments concerning the prudential regulation of financial institutions: banks, the shadow banking system and insurance companies. It concludes that, while substantial progress has been made, the global economy nevertheless remains vulnerable to possible future financial instability.

Action taken by many European countries to return their public finances to health are beginning to pay off, says the OECD. The Euro area economies which emerged from the crisis with serious current account deficits are now in surplus. Debt-to-GDP ratios are stabilising and market tensions have abated.

A moderate recovery is under way in major advanced economies after two years of subdued growth. Overall, most indications point to a continued underlying strengthening of the pace of growth, helped by accommodative monetary policy and reduced fiscal drag.

This paper provides an assessment of how households’ income has fared compared with GDP. While the prime focus is on incomes around the median, attention is paid also to the bottom of the income distribution.

The global economy will strengthen over the coming two years, but urgent action is still required to further reduce unemployment and address other legacies from the crisis, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

By participating more effectively in the global production of goods and services, Africa can transform its economy and achieve a development breakthrough, according to the latest African Economic Outlook, released at the African Development Bank Group’s Annual Meetings.

This report examines the sustainability of social institutions and their ability to absorb and cope with short-term shocks and longer-term trends by providing risk sharing and expenditure smoothing, focusing on pension, health care and unemployment insurance schemes.

Future generations will pay a high price if countries fail to reform pension, health care and unemployment schemes, according to a new OECD report.

The recent economic crisis has provided a stress test for the vulnerability of social institutions. This paper assesses the vulnerability of social institutions in light of the current crisis, and surveys past episodes, when social institutions faced similar challenges.

Income and earning inequality has been on the rise in most of the OECD and in many emerging economies since the 1980s. This paper estimates a model of earnings inequality across OECD countries that incorporates determinants of relative demand and supply of more and less-skilled labour.

This paper presents a productivity growth measure that explicitly accounts for natural capital as an input factor and for undesirable goods, or “bads”, as an output of the production process.

Spain is emerging from a protracted recession, marked by a return to moderate growth and rising international competitiveness. Decisive banking and fiscal reforms, coupled with supportive monetary policy from the European Central Bank, have reduced financial tensions and improved public finance.

This paper estimates potential output losses from the global financial crisis by comparing recent OECD published projections with a counter-factual assuming a continuation of pre-crisis productivity trends and a trend employment rate which is sensitive to demographic trends.

The OECD has updated its key textbook explaining how economic activity is monitored and measured.

The global economy remains stuck in low gear, but is expected to accelerate gradually if countries implement growth-supportive policies. Widening differences across countries and regions are adding to the major risks on the horizon, according to the advanced G20 release of the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

While the outlook for many OECD countries remains subdued, Emerging Asia is set for healthy growth over the medium term. Annual GDP growth for the ASEAN -10, China and India is forecast to average 6.5% over 2015-19. Growth momentum remains robust in the 10 ASEAN countries, with economic growth averaging 5.6% over 2015-19.

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

The Indian economy is showing signs of a turnaround, but new reforms are needed to put the country on a path to strong, sustainable and inclusive growth, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of India.

Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD congratulated the newly elected President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, for taking a bold first step in his economic reform agenda by substantially cutting fuel subsidies.

Modest global economic forecasts, continuing high unemployment, and downshifts in potential output,should spur governments with a greater sense of urgency to fully employ monetary, fiscal and structural policy levers to support growth, notably in Europe, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

Norway has taken some good initiatives to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but needs to establish overarching policies and strategies, and address significant weaknesses in a number of key areas, according to a new report by the Financial Action Task Force.

With India’s low life expectancy largely reflecting deaths from preventable diseases, the most significant gains in health would come from population-wide preventive measures.

The United Kingdom’s economy is projected to expand this year and next, but challenges remain to boost productivity and make future growth more inclusive, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey.

The set of monetary policy instruments has expanded since the start of the global financial crisis in the many OECD economies. Against this background, this paper analyses whether some of the new instruments should be retained in the long term when broader financial stability objectives are likely to feature more prominently as monetary policy goals than prior to the crisis.

Tunisia has made great strides since 2011 towards greater inclusivity and fairness in its political system, based on the rule of law, transparency and good governance.

After three decades of extraordinary economic development, China is shifting to a slower and more sustainable growth path. Further reforms are now needed to ensure that future growth is resilient, inclusive and green, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of China.

The Swedish economy has been among the most resilient in Europe, despite the slow global recovery and high uncertainty, but challenges remain if it is to maintain high growth and well-being and extend prosperity to all, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Sweden.

New global trend such as jobless growth, a rising youth population and resource scarcity threaten to undo much of the progress of recent decades in securing people’s ability to make a living, according to a new report by the OECD Development Centre launched in Paris today at the OECD Global Forum on Development.

Structural reforms and income distribution

With Africa’s population set to double by 2050, modernising local economies will be vital to make the continent more competitive and to increase people’s living standards, according to the African Economic Outlook 2015, released at the African Development Bank Group’s 50th Annual Meetings.

This paper first decomposes labour productivity growth over 2000-11 into a within-industry, a shift and a cross effect in a number of countries and compares China with other countries over this period. This shift-share analysis also allows a comparison of within-sector productivity gains across a large number of sectors and countries.

The New Zealand economy has performed well in recent years, but bottlenecks in housing and urban infrastructure, inequalities in living standards and rising environmental pressures all pose challenges for sustaining robust growth and high levels of well-being over the long term, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of New Zealand.

Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s Minister of Finance and Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General will co-host this event in Mexico City on 6-7 July 2015, with a welcoming by the President of Mexico. Participants will share their views on the key factors that will influence future productivity growth and the creation of an OECD Productivity Network.

South Africa has made impressive social progress over the past two decades, lifting millions of people out of poverty and broadening access to essential services like water, electricity and sanitation.

Brazil has made remarkable social and economic progress in the past two decades, but must now overcome important challenges if it is to put its economy on a stronger, fairer, greener growth trajectory, according to two new reports from the OECD.

A further sharp downturn in emerging market economies and world trade has weakened global growth to around 2.9% this year - well below the long-run average – and is a source of uncertainty for near term prospects, says the OECD.

In order to promote productivity, and thus boost living standards in the long run, public policies need to focus on improving incentives, capabilities and flexibility within an economy.

Switzerland’s recent economic performance has been impressive, but with growth now slowing new reforms will be necessary to maintain high levels of prosperity and ensure future well-being, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Switzerland.

Austria has a model of "separate gender roles" in work, family and life arrangements which persists despite efforts to better balance these roles.

Latin America’s GDP growth slowdown deepened and is expected to be negative in 2015. For a second consecutive year, Latin America falls behind the average growth of OECD countries after a full decade of convergence with advanced economies, according to the Latin American Economic Outlook 2016.

Israel’s economy has strong fundamentals, but the country needs to address productivity, inequality and poverty if it wants to improve well-being and reduce socio-economic divides, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Israel.

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.

This paper investigates the impact of policies and institutions on health expenditures for a large panel of OECD countries for the period 2000-10.

Using a gravity model of bilateral trade in manufacturing industries for selected OECD and BRIICS countries over 1990s-2000s, this paper studies how exports are related to national environmental policies.

The Hungarian economy has expanded strongly in recent years, helped by robust exports and firm domestic demand. But incomes are among the lowest in the OECD and structural reforms will be needed to sustain growth over the medium term, strengthen business investment and better match skills to labour market needs, according to a new OECD report.

Denmark’s economic prospects are improving, but further reforms are needed to maintain the country’s high living standards and ensure the well-being of all citizens, according to a new report from the OECD.

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.