The crisis has hit small and medium enterprises especially hard, causing massive job losses and other economic scars. Among these—less noticeable, but also serious—is rising market power among dominant firms as they emerge even stronger while smaller rivals fall away. We know from experience and IMF research that excessive market power in the hands of a few firms can be a drag on medium-term growth, stifling innovation and holding back investment. Such an outcome could undermine the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis,...

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Paychecks for teachers, new hospital equipment, social assistance programs, and other public expenditures. All depend to large extent on governments’ ability to fund them. When governments—particularly those in emerging and developing economies—need money to pay these and other goods and services, they often turn to bond markets, where they interact with investors seeking to buy government bonds. A local-currency bond market can make an economy more resilient to sudden movements in foreign capital flows. But borrowing in foreign currencies in international bond...

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The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) – a joint initiative of the IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank Group – released the final version of the Toolkit on Tax Treaty Negotiations along with its web-based, interactive edition. The PCT's Toolkit on Tax Treaty Negotiations is an effort to provide capacity-building support to developing countries on tax treaty negotiations, building on existing guidance, particularly from the UN Manual for the Negotiation of Bilateral Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries. The toolkit...

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Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, Frankfurt am Main, 11 March 2021 | Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of the meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Executive Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. While the overall economic situation is expected to improve over 2021, there remains uncertainty surrounding the near-term economic outlook,...

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​The EU SME Strategy, published exactly one year ago by the European Commission aimed at helping small businesses leading the twin transition, reducing regulatory burdens and red tape, supporting market access and entrepreneurship, and improving access to financing. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the viability of European SMEs due to serious disruptions of global supply chains, transport and travel restrictions, and the collapse in consumption and consumer confidence. The EU SME Strategy one year on: Challenges and Opportunities” online...

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All products under the EU Emissions Trading System should be included Revenue to be used to step up EU support for the objectives of the Green Deal The mechanism must not be misused to further trade protectionism To raise global climate ambition and prevent ‘carbon leakage’, the EU must place a carbon price on certain imports from less climate-ambitious countries, say MEPs. On Wednesday, Parliament adopted a resolution on a WTO-compatible EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) with 444 votes...

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To reverse widening inequality, keep a tight rein on automation The industrialized world, especially the United States, suffered severe economic ills even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless we recognize them now, we are unlikely to produce solutions. Chief among these problems is the nature of economic growth, which has become much less shared since the 1980s. Wider inequality in much of the industrialized world; the disappearance of good, high-paying, secure jobs; and the decline in the real wages of less-educated workers...

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The Delegation of the European Union to the United States is pleased to announce that it has granted to distinguished partners funding for projects in support of strengthening transatlantic relations. For the next two years, these four grants will promote a broad range of opportunities for Americans and Europeans to engage and deepen their understanding on a range of issues that are of common interest and concern. MEET EU: Making Encounters, Engaging Transatlanticists Coordinated by the University of North Carolina at...

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The economic downturn caused by the pandemic has taken a painful toll on small businesses. Scores of retail businesses have permanently closed in cities around the world since the Great Lockdown in the spring of 2020. Small and medium enterprises have an out-sized impact on local economies. They account for half to two-thirds of private sector employment in the United States and the European Union, respectively, and contribute close to 40 percent of national income in emerging economies. But small companies face greater...

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