Foreword

This is the sixth edition of the OECD Business and Finance Outlook, an annual publication that presents unique data and analysis on the trends, both positive and negative, that are shaping tomorrow’s world of business, finance and investment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an urgent need to consider resilience in finance, both in the financial system itself and in the role played by capital and investors in making economic and social systems more dynamic and able to withstand external shocks. Using analysis from a wide range of perspectives, this year’s edition focuses on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors that are rapidly becoming a part of mainstream finance. It evaluates current ESG practices, and identifies priorities and actions to better align investments with sustainable, long-term value – in particular, the need for more consistent, comparable and verifiable data on ESG performance.

The publication was prepared under the supervision of Antonio Gomes and Mats Isaksson, based on contributions from Robert Patalano and Riccardo Boffo (Chapter 1), Robert Patalano and Catriona Marshall (Chapter 2), Mats Isaksson (Chapter 3), Mamiko Yoko-Arai, Elsa Favre-Baron and Yael Regev (Chapter 4), Barbara Bijelic and Denis Bravenec (Chapter 5), Hans Christiansen and Sara Sultan (Chapter 6), and Raffaele Della Croce (Chapter 7). The following colleagues from the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise provided comments: Pablo Antolin, Winfrid Blaschke, Timothy Bishop, Tihana Bule, Jingjing Chen, Thomas Dannequin, Pamela Duffin, Oliver Garrett-Jones, Tyler Gillard, Shivani Kannabhiran, Fatos Koc, André Laboul, Flore-Anne Messy, Gary Mills, and Cristina Tebar-Less. The chapters also benefited from useful comments from the OECD Economics Department, Environment Directorate, Directorate for Public Governance, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, and Trade and Agriculture Directorate

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