Author Description

The Asian Development Outlook is ADB's annual survey of economic progress in its developing member countries in Asia and the Pacific. It provides an assessment of global economic trends and recent performance and prospects in the developing economies of Asia and the Pacific. It includes detailed profiles of 34 of ADB's developing member countries, including for the first time Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. It examines grouwth, investment and employment; fiscal and monetary policies, external trade and balance of payments; and policy and development issues. This year's issue also devotes a special chapter to the financial sector, providing an analytical framework for understanding the importance of this sector in an economy. The chapter also reviews the historical experience of the financial sectors of some of ADB's developing member countries and highlights a number of policy lessons that can be drawn from this review.