3 Review(s)

The principal policy issues and challenges facing the region over the next 12 months are concerned with the course of oil prices, the threat of global external payment imbalances unwinding precipitously, the impact of higher interest rates and the potential for the avian influenza to develop into a human pandemic. Longer-term issues relate to the ongoing challenge of poverty reduction, utilizing the benefits of home remittances to simultaneously improve social indicators and macroeconomic fundamentals, and re-energizing the trade liberalization agenda following the Sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, held in Hong Kong, China, in December 2005. Publishing Agency: United Nations (UN).