{"id":8466,"date":"2025-09-26T02:14:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/2025\/09\/26\/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d9%83-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%a3%d9%83%d8%ab%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86-100-%d8%af%d9%88%d9%84%d8%a9-%d8%aa%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%81%d8%ad-%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%88\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T02:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:19:38","slug":"world-bank-over-100-countries-struggle-to-escape-the-middle-income-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/2025\/09\/26\/world-bank-over-100-countries-struggle-to-escape-the-middle-income-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"World Bank: Over 100 Countries Struggle to Escape the \u201cMiddle-Income Trap\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

More than 100 countries<\/strong> \u2014 including China, India, Brazil, and South Africa \u2014 face significant obstacles that could hinder their efforts to transition to high-income status in the coming decades, according to a new World Bank study<\/strong> that provides the first comprehensive roadmap to help developing countries escape the so-called \u201cmiddle-income trap.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drawing on lessons from the past 50 years, the World Development Report 2024<\/strong> notes that as countries become wealthier, economic growth rates slow or stall when per capita income reaches approximately 10 percent of the U.S. per capita GDP<\/strong> \u2014 equivalent to about $8,000 today. At this point, countries enter the trap of \u201cstalled\u201d economic growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This figure sits in the middle of the World Bank\u2019s classification of middle-income countries<\/strong>. Since 1990, only 34 middle-income economies<\/strong> have successfully transitioned to high-income status \u2014 more than one-third of which benefited from joining the European Union or from recently discovered oil reserves.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2023, 108 countries<\/strong> were classified as middle-income, with per capita GDP ranging between $1,136 and $13,845<\/strong>. These countries collectively host 6 billion people<\/strong> \u2014 roughly 75 percent of the global population \u2014 with two-thirds living in extreme poverty<\/strong>. They also produce over 40 percent of global GDP<\/strong> and account for more than 60 percent of carbon emissions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The World Bank highlighted that these countries face far greater challenges than their predecessors in escaping the middle-income trap, including rapid population aging<\/strong>, rising protectionism in advanced economies<\/strong>, and the urgent need to accelerate energy transitions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the findings, Indermit Gill<\/strong>, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, said:
“Middle-income countries will be the battleground for winning or losing the fight for global economic prosperity. Yet many of these countries rely on outdated strategies to catch up with advanced economies, focusing solely on long-term investment or moving toward innovation without adequate preparation. It is therefore essential to adopt a new approach: first focusing on investment, then leveraging new technologies from abroad, and finally implementing a three-pronged strategy that balances investment, technology, and innovation. With increasing demographic, ecological, and geopolitical pressures, there is no room for error.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 countries \u2014 including China, India, Brazil, and South Africa \u2014 face significant obstacles that could hinder their efforts to transition to high-income status in the coming decades, according to a new World Bank study that provides the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.iohr-us.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}