A couple weeks ago, I mused a bit about how developing countries graduate into the leagues of the world’s richest nations, specifically looking at the case of Malaysia. That country has been stuck at ...

In the bustling corridors of the World Bank's Annual Meetings this past October, a diverse group of finance ministers and policymakers from across the globe convened to tackle a pressing issue: the ...

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has warned that its yearly 5% GDP growth, higher than the global average of 2%, is "not enough for [Indonesia] to achieve the meaningful progress" needed to ...

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2024—More than 100 countries—including China, India, Brazil, and South Africa—face serious obstacles that could hinder their efforts to become high-income countries in the next ...

One of the great questions facing China is whether or not its economy can continue to produce the rapid gains in welfare for its giant population that the country has witnessed over the past 30 years.

ASEAN’s middle-income economies face mounting challenges escaping economic stagnation due to weak institutions, limited domestic innovation and over-reliance on foreign multinationals. Unlike ...

The World Bank recently announced that 34 economies have achieved high-income status in recent decades, suggesting that the middle-income trap may not be as formidable as many believed. But this ...

The position of democracy in Southeast Asia has fluctuated since the Asian Financial Crisis, with democratic concerns gaining prominence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, particularly ...

Earlier this week, the Philippines had the honor of hosting the High-Level Conference of Middle-Income Countries (MICs), which convened more than 200 delegates from 24 countries and 77 stakeholder ...

We seem stuck in the middle income trap. Propounded for the first time in 2007 by the World Bank, this concept refers to states or economies that stagnate within a certain range of per capita gross ...