First, they were trapped in a vicious circle of low income, low savings and low investment, leading to low productivity and low growth.

First and foremost, we need policies in low income countries that promote economic growth.

They are wrong, however, about Europe s prospects for achieving its restricted growth potential. Europe s actual economic growth has been quite good and thanks to low gas prices, low real interest rates, solid profits, and strong growth momentum promises to get better before the ceiling is hit and inflationary pressures set in.

In general, growth was broadly based, supported by robust export growth and higher commodity prices as well as strong domestic demand driven by low interest rates.

The low costs of finance facilitated global investment, thereby contributing to the acceleration of global growth in 2004.

Its statistics on women's health were characterized by very high population growth and fertility rates and low life expectancy.

Where job growth has taken place, it has been concentrated in insecure, informal employment with low wages and few benefits.

But it is impeded by slow growth and, thanks to high unemployment and weak global demand, persistently low inflation. Worse, over the longer term, low investment undermines productivity, while protracted unemployment destroys skills.

18.11 The region is suffering from low rates of economic growth and investment, resulting in high unemployment rates, particularly among youth.

Periods of rapid growth in lending are often associated with construction booms, partly because real estate assets are relatively easy to post as collateral for loans. But the rate of productivity growth in construction is low, and the value of many credit fueled projects subsequently turns out to be low or negative.

The world today encompasses, therefore, countries at all stages of the demographic transition, that is to say, the transition from a regime of high fertility and high mortality producing low population growth to one where both fertility and mortality are low and produce again low rates of population change.

Investments in physical infrastructure such as transport, water, sanitation, power and communications, unlock growth potentials and overcome geographical handicaps in low income countries.

Overall, the Canadian economy performed solidly, with sustained economic growth, low and stable inflation and interest rates, and improved resilience to economic shocks.

In countries with low child mortality rates, the main focus of UNICEF will be on improving child growth and development and preventing injuries.

Maybe there is something that naturally, through the growth of the laws of physics, gives rise to universe like ours in low entropy configurations.

Despite their low income levels, by virtue of their numbers, this group of persons, if targeted, could generate significant growth and activity for businesses.

Many of the countries in Latin America, for instance, have experienced slow economic growth despite being fairly advanced in the transition to low fertility.

Even in a situation with relatively slow demand growth and weak prices, new capacity may still be added successfully if production costs are low enough.

Prevailing challenges include low growth, persistent poverty and weak governance, the social and economic disruption resulting from conflict and shortfalls in health and educational services.

China s dramatic manufacturing growth reflected low wages up to now. But as real wages in China and other emerging economies grow, incentives for trade will decline.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, economic growth remained low and volatile, although there was a recovery in 2004 and the outlook for 2005 looks positive.

The alternative explanation for the persistence of weak global growth has been best formulated by the Bank for International Settlements, an organization of central banks. The BIS maintains that excessively low interest rates are a big reason why growth is disappointing.

That forecast, moreover, is based on quite optimistic assumptions of strong economic growth and low interest rates. With slower growth and more normal interest rates, the debt ratio could easily rise to more than 100 in 2021, and exceed 150 by 2030.

Countries are experiencing strong growth, inflation is low, and the threat of crisis has receded considerably. Few countries need to borrow from the IMF a highly positive trend.

More diversified economies are also likely to deliver more inclusive growth growth that creates jobs for more people, and that distributes its benefits more widely. In order to boost long term growth prospects and productivity, low income countries will also need to meet huge infrastructure needs, especially in the area of electricity generation and transportation.

At the same time, a host of new regulations to promote financial stability are forcing banks, pension funds, and insurance companies to stock up on government securities. Thus, today's low interest rates are more a reflection of distortions in financial markets than of low growth expectations.

In Brazil, low savings and various institutional impediments keep interest rates high and investment low, while the educational system does not serve significant parts of the population well. And Russia, despite a very well educated population, continues to be reliant on commodity industries for economic growth.

Germany, for example, is planning the world s most ambitious low carbon energy transition, based on energy conservation and renewables. South Korea has made green growth a central economic goal.

The regular budgets of the specialized agencies, based on assessed contributions, have been locked at historically low levels because of the application of zero or no nominal growth policies.

The combination of high oil prices and production, low interest rates, ample liquidity in both public and private sectors and associated domestic demand expansion gave rise to strong growth.

Low rates, in turn, provided the lubrication needed to finance the asset bubble in the US and elsewhere. According to Summers, high savings caused weak growth under the alternative explanation offered here, it was primarily rapid growth and its distinctive features that drove high savings.

A developing economy may slow prematurely when external factors alter the conditions supporting growth. Wages continue to rise, reducing competitiveness vis à vis low income economies, but the growth model is not yet equipped to support competitiveness in high skill industries, leading to stagnation.

Its extraordinary workforces produce world class goods and services. But the West s workforce must not be condemned to policies that willfully produce a decade of slow growth and low employment.

Whether that fall reflected low demand for credit or constrained supply may seem like a technical issue. But the answer holds important implications for policymaking and prospects for economic growth.

As market size has been constricted and intraregional integration has faced obstacles, economic growth rates have remained low and obstacles and barriers to participation in the multilateral trading system remain.

Therefore, cancellation of half the debt of low income countries would translate into a 0.5 per cent increase in annual growth and fiscal space for increased public and private investment.

Many African countries have used the past decade to put in place sound and sustainable economic policies that have delivered robust growth and low inflation. Together with debt relief, these policies have resulted in low levels of public debt, relatively sound financial systems, and most important  rising living standards.

Many African countries have used the past decade to put in place sound and sustainable economic policies that have delivered robust growth and low inflation. Together with debt relief, these policies have resulted in low levels of public debt, relatively sound financial systems, and most important rising living standards.

These include a low rate of economic growth over the past 10 years (2.4 per cent on average), largely due to a sharp drop in direct investment marked and persistent inequality heavy reliance of the economy on agriculture and the low level of social security coverage, among other factors.

Favourable external factors, including low dollar interest rates, the expansion of regional tourism and a sustained increase in worker remittances and other income transfers, resulted in healthy domestic demand growth, which drove the real GDP growth rate up to 4.9 per cent, the highest since 2000.

Other emerging markets growth prospects are even worse not least because of low commodity prices. As a result, these countries can expect lower capital inflows, again making for weak local currencies.

Among the costs and risks of their low interest rate policies are a return to the leveraged growth pattern and growing uncertainty about the limits of a central bank s balance sheet expansion. In other words, will the elevated asset values caused by low discount rates suddenly reset downward at some point?

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4 per cent of children under 5 are undernourished, 10 per cent are slow in growth or too low for their age, and 6 per cent of children are low in body mass in relation to their age, but this figure should be interpreted with care.

Expanding the service sector, where productivity is low, will hold back aggregate output. And if growth decelerates further the annual rate has already dropped from 10 to 7.5 social unrest may increase.

In the last two years, credit grew almost twice as fast as GDP, and total social financing grew even faster. Yet GDP growth slowed considerably from an annual average of 10.2 in 2002 2011 suggesting that China may be moving closer to a medium to low speed growth path.