AGL 38.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.18%)
AIRLINK 136.34 Increased By ▲ 2.15 (1.6%)
BOP 9.20 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (3.95%)
CNERGY 4.72 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.64%)
DCL 8.85 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.08%)
DFML 38.34 Decreased By ▼ -1.44 (-3.62%)
DGKC 85.45 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (0.35%)
FCCL 35.15 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (0.72%)
FFBL 76.21 Increased By ▲ 0.61 (0.81%)
FFL 12.66 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.63%)
HUBC 108.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.75 (-0.69%)
HUMNL 14.73 Increased By ▲ 0.63 (4.47%)
KEL 5.58 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (3.33%)
KOSM 7.96 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.71%)
MLCF 40.78 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-1.43%)
NBP 70.94 Increased By ▲ 1.24 (1.78%)
OGDC 195.25 Increased By ▲ 1.63 (0.84%)
PAEL 26.96 Increased By ▲ 0.75 (2.86%)
PIBTL 7.46 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.54%)
PPL 168.02 Increased By ▲ 4.17 (2.55%)
PRL 26.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-0.64%)
PTC 20.34 Increased By ▲ 0.87 (4.47%)
SEARL 92.75 Increased By ▲ 8.35 (9.89%)
TELE 7.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-1.88%)
TOMCL 35.49 Increased By ▲ 1.44 (4.23%)
TPLP 8.91 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (2.18%)
TREET 17.29 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.64%)
TRG 59.27 Decreased By ▼ -1.73 (-2.84%)
UNITY 31.02 Increased By ▲ 2.06 (7.11%)
WTL 1.37 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 10,901 Increased By 125.5 (1.16%)
BR30 32,654 Increased By 420 (1.3%)
KSE100 101,357 Increased By 1274.6 (1.27%)
KSE30 31,488 Increased By 295 (0.95%)

A rapidly growing gap between rich and poor in many developing East Asian nations is threatening the foundation for the region's economic success, the World Bank said Monday. "The whole basis for East Asia's success was this sense that everything was fair - you worked hard, you got ahead - but that is beginning to unravel a little bit," said Sudhir Shetty, the bank's chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific.
Booming economic growth has lifted millions in the region out of extreme poverty since the 1980s, but the wave of prosperity has not guaranteed upward mobility and economic security for large swathes of the population, the World Bank said in a new report. Developing East Asian and Pacific countries must strengthen social security nets and help poor citizens climb the economic ladder if they want to dodge the negative effects of inequality, it added.
The international lender said rapidly ageing populations, urbanisation and the disappearance of labour-intensive factory jobs threatened to push millions back below the poverty line - defined as living on between $3.10 to $5.50 a day. "In this changed environment, particularly given some of the external forces coming along, the region needs to start thinking differently about inclusive growth," Shetty told AFP at the launch of the report.
The number of poor citizens across the region - including about a dozen countries and the Pacific Islands, but excluding developed countries such as Japan and South Korea - has dropped significantly in recent decades. About two-thirds of its population were either economically secure or middle class by 2015, up from 20 percent in 2002, the bank said. But income inequality is already high or rising rapidly, with the problem most acute in Indonesia and China, according to the report. Between 1988 and 2012, the wealthiest five percent of the region's population increased their personal consumption by almost $400 a year, compared with less than $30 for the bottom 20 percent.

Comments

Comments are closed.