The core aim of the OECD is to promote worldwide economic growth and sustainable development and to forge policies to support this aim. To measure progress and assess the development of the modern world, the organization has compiled, from its thirty Member states and from across the world, a unique and formidable database. The OECD database of economic, environmental, and social statistics is one of the richest and most respected available, and is unrivalled as a guide to global development. This new publication, OECD Economies and the World Today, is aimed at business leaders and policy makers. Its purpose is to present some of the headline statistics in a clear and accessible way and then draw out trends from the statistics and look at future prospects through a series of authoritative commentaries. The book is comprised of 20 sections designed to reflect the most pressing challenges in public policy today, from ongoing causes of concern such as economic performance and education to questions demanding immediate attention such as corporate governance and money laundering. In essence, the book aims to give non-specialists, particularly from the commercial sector, a picture of performance and prospects in the worlds leading economies.