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The Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes - Accounting and Auditing (ROSC A&A) program is part of a 12-module joint World Bank-IMF initiative to assist member countries to strengthen their financial systems by improving their capacity to comply with internationally recognized standards and codes. The program focuses on the institutional framework underpinning national accounting and auditing practices, and degree of conformity with international standards and good practices. The initial ROSC A&A for Rwanda was carried out in 2008 and provided a key input in designing necessary financial reporting reforms in the country. The 2015 update is a valuable tool for monitoring the effectiveness of the reform program. It assesses the degree to which the recommendations of the 2008 ROSC A&A review have been implemented, identifies issues that have emerged since the last review, and proposes a number of recommendations aimed at further strengthening the quality of corporate financial reporting and auditing which contributes to improving business climate, investors’ confidence and economic growth potential of Rwanda.

The Lebanon Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Lebanon. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and other changes in policy on the outlook for Lebanon. Lebanon continues to be impacted by the domestic political stalemate and regional turmoil, particularly along its border with Syria. Economic activity picked up in the second half of 2014. Stronger economic performance and lower oil prices pushed real GDP growth to an estimated 2.0 percent in 2014, compared to 0.9 percent in 2013. One-off cosmetic and unsustainable measures rather than policy actions helped improve the fiscal balance in 2014. We estimate the overall fiscal deficit to have declined by 2.3 percentage points. Declining imports lead an improvement in the current account balance. In 2014, a fall in merchandize imports induced a 4.4 pp reduction in the current account deficit to a still-elevated 22.2 percent of GDP. This trend is projected to continue in 2015 helped by falling oil prices and a depreciating euro, Headline inflation plummeted from 2.7 percent in 2013 to 1.9 percent in 2014 and is expected to remain tempered over the medium term. Lebanon s economy continues to be exposed to external shocks. The border with Syria is increasingly menacing as coordinated attacks by ISIS and Al Nusra are being launched more frequently from their bases in Syria. Inefficiencies in power generation impose sizable macroeconomic costs on Lebanon. The Lebanese electricity sector has been underperforming for decades with considerable socio-economic costs. The macroeconomic impact has been massive.

Although Moldova has made some important advances since the 2008 FSAP update, risks to banking sector stability have become severe. There is an urgent need, therefore, to improve transparency and governance in the banking system. Although the banking sector appears to be well capitalized and liquid, important pockets of weakness remain and vulnerabilities may be masked by fraud or misreporting. The two securities settlement systems are in need of updating, though plans to take this reform forward are not finalized. Weaknesses in the insolvency and creditor or debtor regime create uncertainty and may deter some stakeholders from engaging in financial transactions. Especially in light of the weaknesses described above and recent geopolitical uncertainties, urgent action is needed to address these and mitigate the risks to which the financial system appears to be exposed.

This 2014 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes in Accounting and Auditing (ROSC A&A) is the second review for Ghana. Its main objectives are to: assess the degree to which the policy recommendations of the 2004 review have been implemented, identify any emerging issues since the last review and develop policy recommendations that, once implemented, would further enhance the quality of financial reporting in the country. While growth has been spurred by favorable commodity prices for gold and cocoa, the start of commercial production of oil and a booming services sector, there is still room for improvement in the business environment, business confidence and financing of the economy. The implementation of the policy recommendations contained in this report will contribute to improved business environment and investor confidence, an essential factor for economic growth.

A general view in the corporate governance literature is that corporate ownership structures are rather stable in time and change slowly. However, even if changes in ownership structures are difficult due to path dependence, anecdotal evidence indicates that some sort of transition towards the US style corporate ownership could be occurring in civil-law countries. The aim of this article is to test the so-called "law and finance" view, which predicts that this convergence will only happen if the appropriate regulatory framework is in place. We test this prediction using longitudinal data from Italian listed companies, assessing the effects of recent legal reforms. Our results show that an increase in the protection of investors' rights is associated with a lower use of control enhancing mechanisms and a lower separation of control and cash flow rights, while it is less evident if it is associated with a more dispersed ownership. These findings carry important implications for theory and practice. Copyright 2013 The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

The report titled ‘contingent liabilities: the Colombian experience,’ is the first publication on the management of contingent liabilities in Colombia. Published by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (MHCP), the report highlights technical and normative efforts and policy reforms on the management of contingent liabilities implemented by the Colombian Government. Policy reforms disclosed in the report pertain to the management of contingent liabilities borne by the Government from four different sources, namely public credit operations, contractual public-private partnerships on infrastructure development, legal actions against the Colombian Government, and contingencies resulting from natural disasters. Importantly, although natural disasters are the second most important source of contingent liabilities faced by the Colombian Government, most formal policy reforms have been directed to the institutionalization of managing the first three sources of contingencies, while legal reforms for the explicit accounting of natural disasters is an ongoing effort in Colombia.

The law and related implementing regulations that constitute the regulatory framework affecting the capital markets in Indonesia are largely consistent with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation. Nevertheless this assessment finds that legislative reforms and other actions that are in the process of being implemented to clarify and expand the security regulator's authority and to cure certain self-acknowledged gaps should be accelerated. Further, the assessment concludes that attention must be paid to assure that implementation of the regulatory framework results in a system that reliably detects, deters, and sanctions securities violations and reliably identifies and prevents or mitigates prudential concerns. This may require legal reforms beyond those necessary to reform the specific capital markets law, as discussed more extensively by the separate legal assessor. How significant such further reform will be to enforcement effectiveness will depend in part on the manner in which regulatory enforcement powers and authorities are augmented and enhanced under the capital markets law revision. Capital markets operations are heavily dependent on legal certainty, and in particular reliable application of contract, company, insolvency, and other legal protections.

The Philippine economy recovered strongly from the global recession owing to a combination of transitory and permanent, as well as global and idiosyncratic factors. Similar to its regional peers, the recovery was partly driven by the rebound in global trade and domestic consumption linked to sharp increases in consumer confidence. In the Philippines, growth was also spurred by two domestic and temporary factors-continued fiscal policy easing and election-related spending-and a structural one, namely the acceleration in global outsourcing which benefited the country's business process outsourcing sector and associated sectors such as construction. The economy is projected to grow by 6.2 percent in 2010 and by 5 percent in 2011, with large but broadly balanced risks. While inflation expectations are under control, the prospects of large short-term capital inflows partly linked to renewed quantitative easing by key G7 central banks are complicating monetary policy at a time when the economy no longer needs accommodative monetary policy. The first budget of the Aquino government could be a turning point for the Philippines in the public finance area. The 2011 budget changes current dynamics in two critical areas: the (structural and cyclical) fiscal policy stance and the quality of public finances. This "reform budget" renews the fiscal consolidation effort-albeit modestly and contains significant reform measures aimed at improving spending efficiency, transparency and accountability of the budget. For the 2011 budget to indeed turn the country away from a weak fiscal position, inconsistent spending efficiency, and significant gaps in public expenditure and financial accountability, efforts initiated in this budget will have to both be sustained over time and expanded. Strengthening revenue mobilization-through a modern tax system with efficiency and equity at its core-would enable future budgets to scale up spending needed to generate inclusive growth.

This paper analyzes the role of the leadership in the economic growth in Rwanda, a country that was seriously affected by civil war and the 1994 genocide. It appears that the will and the clear vision of the leadership in Rwanda were one of the central pillars of the very good economic and social performances in Rwanda. This is particularly important because the country has almost no natural resources and the economy and its fundamentals were completely destroyed by the 1994 genocide. This paper thus helps enrich the various economic growth models by stressing the importance of the quality of leadership.