In April 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was again in Washington to petition Donald Trump. After years of rapid, export-led growth, Japan had slumped into recession in 1991 and never really recovered. For the past 27 years, it's economy has grown at 1.1% annually, plagued by deflation. After several attempts at quantitative easing, Abe had commenced a radical program in 2012 called Quantitative and Qualitative Easing - the first of "three arrows" to repair the Japanese economy. But in early 2018, inflation was still far below the 2% goal, growth had turned negative, and Abe faced the highest debt among the OECD. Together with demographic, energy and security problems, Abe had his hands full, while President Trump roiled the waters in China and North Korea.

Portugal was not ready to join the European Monetary Union in 1999. With strong unions, weak competitiveness and a legacy of socialism, it could not compete with north-European countries. After borrowing extensively to fund deficits, Portugal went into debt crisis in 2011 and had to borrow from the Troika. As banks failed, structural adjustment followed. Today several structural issues and the threat of external risks continue to cast a shadows on its otherwise remarkable recovery.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman faces several challenges, both domestic and foreign. Domestically, he need to build the country's economy to accommodate a "youth bulge" while balancing between liberals and conservatives. And he needs to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil. Internationally, he must cope with the Arab Spring, with war in Syria and Yemen as well as the threats from Iran and ISIS and continuing friction between Palestinians and Israelis. The key to these issues is Vision 2030 - the plan his son, the Crown Prince, has introduced and begun implementing.

Energy - both petroleum and electricity - had been terribly managed for decades in Mexico. The two national monopolies - PEMEX and CFE - were inefficient, overstaffed, corrupt, rife with subsidies, and losing money. Finally, in 2012, President Enrique Pena Nieto announced his intent to drastically reform both. Over the next two years, the Mexican constitution was amended, and a dozen implementing laws were passed, to break up the CFE, reorganize PEMEX, and impose competition between the pieces. By 2017, tracts of offshore oil were auctioned, renewable contracts were auctioned, and new regulators were trying to impose competition downstream in electricity.

After more than 40 years of membership in the European Union, the United Kingdom voted via referendum to separate from the EU on June 23, 2016. Following the surprise verdict (termed Brexit), a political upheaval followed, with many ministers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, resigning or being sacked, and markets collapsed. As markets recovered, Theresa May was chosen as the new prime minister of the UK in charge of leading the separation. The future of the UK and its relationship with Europe was uncertain. No country had ever left the EU before, so there was no precedent to follow and no clear indication of what the UK planned to do after exiting. Why had the British voted to leave? Would the UK and the EU be able to agree on a mutually beneficial arrangement? What would be the effects, politically and economically, on the UK and European countries? The impact of the disunion on the relationship between the EU and the UK was yet to be seen.

Twenty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa's democracy persists, albeit with problems. A tripartite coalition - the African National Congress, the labor unions, and the Communist Party - still controls the political system but with diminishing economic results and authority. Since 2010, the economy has grown at 1.4% annually, with unemployment at 25%. Several national plans have been initiated but none with success. Most recently, the National Development Plan is the Zuma administration's approach. And then, at the end of 2015, cronyism sunk the stock market and the currency, causing a political crisis. Pravin Gordhan, an experienced bureaucrat, is once again Finance Minister but faces the tradeoff between growth and debt reduction. With the recent resignation of Zuma and the instatement of former deputy president and wealthy businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as President, it was still to be determined if a change in leadership would be enough to improve the country's economic and social situation.

Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil, known as "Custo Brasil," was hurting domestic manufacturing, while incoming foreign investments threatened to overwhelm Brazilian markets. Under President Dilma Rousseff, economic growth stagnated, and the Rousseff administration struggled to find the best balance between reducing inflation, maintaining a flexible exchange rate, and improving the competitiveness of Brazilian exports.

Set in the year 2004, when Rwanda commemorated the 10th anniversary of a genocide that had claimed the lives of over 10% of its population. Focuses on the formulation of an economic strategy to rebuild the economy and its institutions after the devastation. Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, highlights the challenges of economic development in Africa and in other low-income countries. Provides a brief political and economic history of Rwanda, but focuses on the country preceding and after the genocide. A description of government policies since 1994 enables discussion of the efforts of the transitional government under Bizimungu (1994-2000) and the first Kagame government (2000-2004) to restore and build the economy. Provides detailed economic and social data as of 2004, allowing evaluation of policy results. Concludes as President Kagame, now formally elected as head of state, considers an economic strategy to meet Rwanda's current challenges and increase the country's prosperity over the next decade.