Global economic growth is up 75 per cent since 1992 but inequality is still high

From 1992 to 2010, the world’s overall GDP grew by 75 per cent and GDP per capita by 40 per cent. In per capita terms, middle-income countries saw the fastest growth in the 2000s, followed by low-income and then high- income countries. Strong economic growth in some developing countries has led to dramatic improvements in the lives of many poor people.

However, in absolute terms, the per capita income difference between rich and poor countries has grown continuously. Gross national income per capita (based on purchasing power parity) in high-income countries was about 5 times higher than in middle-income countries in 2010 and about 30 times higher than in low-income countries. Average country-level income inequality increased around 20 per cent between 1990 and 2005, despite a surge in the size of the “global middle class”. The gap between rich and poor has widened in many developed countries in the past 20 years, and the average income of the richest 10 per cent of the population is now about nine times that of the poorest 10 per cent.