Developing countries are becoming the new drivers of global economic growth and their collective economic size could surpass that of developed countries by 2015, a group of World Bank economists said in a new book.
Approximately 50 percent of total global growth at present is coming from the developing world, World Bank economists explained in the book “The Day After Tomorrow: A Handbook on the Future of Economic Policy in the Developing World.” The economists urged developing countries to take advantage of their current fiscal positions to promote inclusive growth.
The World Bank publication identifies five factors that account for the steady rise of growth in developing countries, namely faster technological learning, high commodity prices, healthier balance sheets, large middle-classes and more South-South commercial integration.
“The economic horizon of the developing world is promising,” Marcelo Giugale, poverty reduction and economic management director of the World Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean and co-editor the new World Bank book, said in a World Bank press release. “The rebalancing of global growth toward a multiplicity of engines will give developing countries new relevance. It will also change their policy agendas: on average, economic management will be stronger, governments will be better, and the beginning of the end of poverty will be within reach.”
According to the book, growth in developing countries could reach 6.1 percent in 2010, 5.9 percent in 2011 and 6.1 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, growth in high-income countries is estimated to reach 2.3 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.6 percent during the same time periods.
