The rise of e-commerce, and more recently digital wallets, has been a fragmented affair, meaning there is little standardisation across the e-payments industry. This is something that needs addressing, says Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium, and there is no time to lose.

From dealing with the knock-on effects of the US and EU sanctions on Russia to preparing for the adoption of the euro, Lithuania's finance minister Rimantas Šadžius has been kept busy this year. But, despite the headwinds, Lithuania has managed to record one of the highest GDP growth rates in Europe.

Political instability is keeping Lebanon from achieving its potential, according to central bank governor Riad Salameh, who is targeting three major sectors as engines of economic growth. 

Are robots going to render the human worker obsolete? These claims are inaccurate and misleading, says MIT economics professor David H Autor, as the role of the computer will typically be to complement, not compete with, the human touch.

'Failure' has been a common theme of the introspective assessments made in the banking sector and of economies more generally since the onset of the global financial crisis. The authors of Why Nations Fail examine the differences between those countries that sink and those that swim.

Better urban planning, being cleaner, greener and more resilient, and sourcing more innovative financing are needed if Asia's cities are to cope with and benefit from a rapid phase of urbanisation, says the Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao.

With the eurozone flirting with deflation, solutions to this problem are urgently needed. One of them – the integration of markets and institutions – offers hope, according to Italy's minister of economy and finance, Pier Carlo Padoan.