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Otaviano Canuto
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Otaviano Canuto is the Senior Advisor on BRICS in the Development Economics Department, a new position established by President Kim to bring a fresh research focus to this increasingly critical area.

He previously served as the Bank’s Vice President and Head of the Poverty Reduction Network (PREM), a division of more than 700 economists and other professionals working on economic policy, poverty reduction, gender equality and analytic work for client countries. He also served as an Executive Director of the Board of the World Bank from 2004-2007. Outside of the Bank he has held leadership positions at the Inter-American Development Bank where he was Vice President for Countries, and for the Government of Brazil where he was Secretary for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance. He also has an extensive academic background, serving as Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo and University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.

Entries by Otaviano Canuto

Brazil: Chasing Animal Spirits

(0) Comments | Posted June 17, 2013 | 1:11 PM

Brazil's GDP performance has been lackluster since the post-crisis rebound in 2010. Prospects for 2013 look a little better: unemployment rates have remained low, and data from the first quarter of the year suggest improving growth rates. Investment also rose ahead of consumption, which may indicate a more balanced growth...

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Bankrupt Sovereigns: Is There an Orderly Way Out?

(9) Comments | Posted June 10, 2013 | 4:26 PM

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is taking a new look at Sovereign Debt Restructuring. There are at least two major reasons for this: First, it is expected that official creditors play a unique role during sovereign debt crises, since lending of last resort becomes the only bridge over...

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What It Takes for Trade to Reduce Poverty in Africa

(0) Comments | Posted June 3, 2013 | 5:15 PM

Despite tremendous progress in poverty reduction over the last two decades, poverty still persists. Along with South Asia, Africa is a region where large numbers of people continue to live in extreme poverty. It is also a region where there is clearly room for higher foreign trade levels...

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China: The Morphing Dragon

(14) Comments | Posted May 22, 2013 | 2:48 PM

The Chinese economy has changed dramatically over the last three decades. While its per-capita income was only a third of that of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1978, it has now reached an upper-middle income status, lifting more than half a billion people out of poverty. The numbers are dramatic: per capita...

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Marrying Monetary Policy and Financial Regulation

(2) Comments | Posted May 9, 2013 | 12:10 PM

If the global financial crisis -- and the events that led up to it -- have taught us anything, it is, "No complacency with asset price booms." We know firsthand the dire consequences of bubbles, so it is clear monetary policy makers can no longer passively observe the evolution of...

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Growing After the Crisis: Boosting Productivity in Developing Countries

(7) Comments | Posted April 30, 2013 | 4:01 PM

Spring in D.C. draws more than just tourists. Last week, government officials, policy makers, civil society representatives and other thought leaders converged to take stock of the global economy during the IMF-World Bank spring meetings. The tone in the hallways was optimistic, but cautious. Growth in advanced economies still remains...

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Until Subnational Debt Do Us Part

(0) Comments | Posted April 15, 2013 | 11:27 AM

Decentralization in many countries has given subnational governments certain spending responsibilities, revenue-raising authority, and the capacity to incur debt. Furthermore, rapid urbanization in developing countries is requiring large-scale infrastructure financing to help absorb influxes of rural populations. Not surprisingly, the subnational debt market in some developing countries has been going...

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Trade: The World Is Not Flat Yet

(4) Comments | Posted March 25, 2013 | 12:39 PM

Thomas Friedman's bestseller The World Is Flat highlights the strong forces pushing the world towards a single economic platform. The technology-fueled globalization in the provision of services, and the widespread organization of production processes as global value chains are part of his narrative. The revolutionary potential...

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South Asia and the Geography of Poverty

(0) Comments | Posted March 18, 2013 | 1:02 PM

The world has become relatively less poor in the last few decades. People under conditions of extreme poverty -- that is, living on less than $1.25 per day -- have declined as a proportion of the world population, from 52 percent in 1981 to 22 percent in 2008....

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Gender Equality Pays Off in Brazil

(5) Comments | Posted March 7, 2013 | 9:29 AM

Brazil's success in reducing poverty and income inequality has been widely reported in recent years. What is less known is that there has also been progress in lessening gender inequality in the past two decades. Illiteracy rates for women 15 years old and above came down from 20.3...

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Climate Change: Get Ready to Adapt!

(23) Comments | Posted February 27, 2013 | 1:37 PM

WB President Jim Yong Kim's recent Washington Post op-ed "Make Climate Change a Priority" warned that "global warming imperils all of the development gains we have made." Jim Kim drew on a recent World Bank report that points to the possibility for global temperatures to rise by 4...

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Brazilian Competitiveness: Folia and Hangover

(0) Comments | Posted February 12, 2013 | 9:40 AM

As the Carnival in Brazil kicked off last weekend, Brazilians were ready for a party. They have reasons to celebrate. Despite a lackluster GDP performance in the last two years, unemployment rates remain at record low levels. Poverty rates and income inequality have diminished steadily now for more...

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Mobilizing Development via Mobile Phones

(0) Comments | Posted January 9, 2013 | 1:46 PM

I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses my mobile phone for almost everything but to make a call. Thanks to technological advances and the explosion of social media, we text, tweet or post to Facebook on our devices. But beyond mere communications tools, mobile phones are also crucial...

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In Times of Consecutive Crises, Is Fiscal Policy the Answer?

(0) Comments | Posted December 20, 2012 | 3:04 PM

In recent weeks, fiscal policy -- once the domain of policy wonks -- has become part of dinner-table conversations. As Washington attempts to put its fiscal house in order, catchy metaphors from "fiscal cliff" to "fiscal calamity" to "austerity bomb" (and even "hostage crisis") permeate the media. Amidst the media...

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Where Rubber Hits the Road: Reforming Public Sector Management

(4) Comments | Posted December 10, 2012 | 11:13 AM

In practice, theory is something else. I've already heard variants of this expression in several countries and languages. Very often from people referring to the gap between abstract, generic principles and the implementation of projects and policies.

As World Bank President Jim Kim has recently remarked, "Many countries...

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The East Asian Miracle 2.0

(0) Comments | Posted November 26, 2012 | 10:37 AM

Almost 20 years ago, the World Bank released a groundbreaking report -- The East Asian Miracle -- that called worldwide attention to the economic success of eight economies in the region, leading to a discussion on the extent to which policies followed by them could be replicated. In a...

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It's Jobs, Stupid!

(14) Comments | Posted November 14, 2012 | 2:00 PM

The World Bank has been tracking the world progress against poverty since the late '80s, but the release of 2008 data was the first time in which all regions of the developing world showed a decline in the number of people living below poverty lines! Furthermore, that phenomenon had happened...

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Revolutionary Services

(2) Comments | Posted November 7, 2012 | 4:21 PM

Last May, in China, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy remarked:

"The global economy is being transformed at an unprecedented speed and at the heart of that transformation is the services economy. ... Services underpin every part of the production process, from research and development to design, engineering, financing,...
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Can Non-State Service Delivery Undermine Governments?

(6) Comments | Posted October 31, 2012 | 3:35 PM

Whether it is in the U.S. presidential election campaign or as a result of the debt crisis in Europe, people on both sides of the Atlantic are debating the role of the state. Do we need more government or less of it? Do we want more public services provided by...

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Shifting Tectonic Plates Under Global Banking

(2) Comments | Posted October 24, 2012 | 1:23 PM

The global financial crisis has reversed an expansionary trend of international activities by banks from advanced countries that had been at play for decades. From the late 1970s to 2008, banks not only found new opportunities for intermediation in increasing cross-border capital flows, but they also raised their profile in...

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