Globalisation 'Localises' Inequality Analysis by John Vandaele*
*BRUSSELS, Mar 11 (IPS) - Is the big North-South-divide finally diminishing? It seems to be, though slowly.*
For the first time in decades, if not centuries, most of the so-called developing countries have seen their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- that is the sum of all incomes earned on their territory -- grow faster during the last five years than that of the so-called rich countries (EU, U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia...).
While rich countries had an average growth of 3 percent, developing countries on average realised 7 percent. Even income per head was growing faster in the South than in the North between 2003 and 2007. For East Asia and South Asia this is nothing new, but for Latin America and Africa it is a reversal after at least two decades of stagnation, or worse.
All in all, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its latest Trade and Development Report, there has been a moderate reduction in the gap between developing and developed countries. "In 1980 the real per capita GDP of developed countries was 23 times higher than that of developing countries, but it narrowed to 18 times in 2007," the report says.
East and South Asia are almost exclusively responsible for this. For Africa, Latin America and the so-called transition economies (former communist countries), the relative gap is much wider today then in 1980.
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