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Global Growth Projections (2026)
IMF projections for global economic growth trends by 2026.
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Putting people back into 'development' - a challenge for South
Should Sri Lanka consider an 18th IMF programme? Some academicians exploring Sri Lanka’s development prospects in depth are raising this issue. It is yet to emerge as a hot topic among policy and decision-making circles in this country but common sense would sooner rather than later dictate that it be taken up for discussion by the wider public and a decision arrived at. The issue of an 18th IMF programme was raised with some urgency locally by none other than Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja,Visiting Senior Fellow, ODI Global London, one of whose presentations, made at the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo, was highlighted in this column last week, May 7th. An IMF programme is far from the ideal way out for a bankrupt country such as Sri Lanka but a policy of economic pragmatism would indicate that there is no other way out for Sri Lanka. Such a programme is the proverbial ‘Bird in the hand’ for Sri Lanka and it may be compelled to avail of it to get itself out of the morass of economic failures it is bogged down in currently. While local economic growth possibilities are far from encouraging at present, such prospects globally are far from bright as well. Some of the more thought-provoking data in the latter regard were disclosed by Dr. Wignaraja. For example, ‘The IMF’s April 2026 World Economic Outlook projects global growth slowing to 3.1 percent in 2026; with downside risks dominating: prolonged conflict, geopolitical fragmentation, renewed trade tensions, bearing down hardest on emergent and developing economies.’ However, as is known, an ‘IMF bailout’ is fraught with huge risks for the people of a developing country. ‘The Silver Bullet’ brings hardships for the people usually and they would be required by their governments to increasingly ‘tighten their belts’ and brace for perhaps indefinite material hardships and discontent. For Sri Lanka, the cost of living is unsettlingly high and 20 percent of the population is languishing below the poverty line of $ 3.65 per day. These statistics should help put the spotlight on the people of a country, who are theoretically the subjects and beneficiaries of development, and one of the main reasons, in so far as democracies are concerned, for the existence of governments. Placing people at the centre of the development process is urgently needed in the global South and shifting the focus to other considerations would be tantamount to governments dabbling in misplaced priorities. Technocrats are need...
Mapping poverty in South Africa | South Africa Gateway (2026)
InfographicsBy Mary Alexander on 20 October 2023Where are South Africa’s poorest places? Two maps find the patterns of poverty: the share of households living in poverty in each municipality, and the number of poor people living there. An animation tries to make sense of the maps.South Africa’s poorest province is the Eastern Cape. The wealthiest province is Gauteng. Around 880,000 of the mostly rural Eastern Cape’s people live in poverty. In Gauteng, a city region with the best opportunities for jobs, some 610,000 people live in poverty.These numbers are calculated from Statistics South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey.Poverty in South Africa has deep historical roots that show up in more recent movements of people.Map of South Africa showing estimated numbers of people living in poverty. The numbers are calculated from the population, poverty headcount and average household size of each municipality.The reason so many South Africans live in poverty, in a middle-income country, is apartheid. Apartheid was a crude attempt at social engineering designed to make black South Africans a cheap and plentiful source of labour.Instead, it excluded the majority of the people from any meaningful participation in the economy. It made South Africa poorer than it should have been.South Africa has a wealth of resources. But for more than 40 years, apartheid squandered this potential.A government policy designed to keep most of its people poor seems, and is, absurd. But South Africa under apartheid was not a democracy. The only electorate the government had to please was white people. The apartheid planners purposefully built a system that prevented black South Africans from earning, prospering and contributing to the wealth of the country. That sucked the potential for growth out of the economy.Click animation to view from the start.Today, geographical patterns of poverty on the map of South Africa still correspond to the apartheid “homelands”, barren rural regions far from cities, packed with people but with little infrastructure, no development and few jobs. Municipalities with high percentages of people living in poverty are today often found in regions that were once homelands.But when we look at total numbers of people living in poverty, the cities stand out. Cities have larger numbers of people, so more people living in poverty are likely to be found there.Migration from the rural areas to the cities is an important feature of recent South African history. Apartheid...
'I participate through suffering': Rethinking community participation ...
Local Economic Development (LED) in South Africa is often framed as a participatory and inclusive strategy aimed at addressing unemployment and inequality. However, in practice, participation tends to be procedural rather than transformative. This study investigates the experiences of community participation in LED within Phuthaditjhaba, a peripheral urban centre in the Free State province ...
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