Without Course Correction, 20 Of 26 Countries Would Remain Poor Through 2050 -- WB

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (KUNA) -- The next 25 years could prove decisive in determining whether the worldآ's 26 poorest countries progress to middle-income status, a new World bank analysis shows. Home to more than 40 percent of people struggling on less than $2.15 a day, these countries are the central focus of global efforts to end extreme poverty. Yet their progress has stalled amid heightened conflict, frequent economic crises, and persistently feeble growth.
Over the past 25 years, progress has mostly bypassed these countries, according to the analysis, which is featured in the World Bankآ's forthcoming Global Economic Prospects report to be published Jan. 14, 2025.
At the start of the 21st century, the World Bank classified 63 countries as "low-income." Since then, 39 countries including India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh have entered the ranks of middle-income countries, meaning their annual per capita incomes were above $1,145 by 2023.
The remainder, which were joined by South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic in the 2010s, have simply stagnated: on average, their inflation-adjusted GDP per capita has grown by less than 0.1 percent annually over the past 15 years. Barring a sustained improvement in growth rates, only six of todayآ's low-income countries are likely to achieve middle-income status by 2050, the analysis finds.
"The next 25 years are a critical window of opportunity for the poorest countries" and the rest of the world has a vital stake in helping them get out of poverty," said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Groupآ's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
"Todayآ's poor countries face a tougher slog than their predecessors: over the past 15 years, theyآ've seen practically no growth in per capita incomes. Yet the record in East, Southeast, and South Asia shows that with a little help from abroad and better policies at home, even countries ravaged by war and instability can create the conditions for sustained economic progress."
The World Bank analysis is the first to systematically examine the progress of todayآ's cohort of low-income countries in the first 25 years of this century and their prospects for attaining middle-income status over the next 25 years.
It finds that todayآ's batch "22 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa" faces greater constraints than their predecessors. Seventeen of them are racked by conflict or fragility, with lethality rates 20 times the level in other developing economies. Nearly all are especially vulnerable to climate change. Most are either in debt distress or at high risk of it. Half are landlocked, bordered by other poor countries, which limits their ability to boost growth through trade.
Yet these countries also possess substantial natural advantages that could propel them to a higher standard of living. With more than 60 percent and 50 percent of the worldآ's known reserves of cobalt and graphite respectively, todayآ's low-income countries boast some of the largest known deposits of metals and minerals needed to generate and store renewable energy. Their potential for solar-energy production is among the highest in the world. In addition, working-age populations" a potent force for economic growth" are rapidly expanding in these countries even as they shrink almost everywhere else. (end)
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