Rapid economic growth over the past two decades lifted millions of people out of poverty in Central Asia. But the uneven spread of prosperity left many communities struggling to catch up. To support lagging regions within countries, each of the region's five national governments has made...

Indonesia has seen tremendous progress in poverty reduction over the past couple of decades and, as a result, has made a successful transition from low-income to middle-income country status. As millions have moved out of poverty and extreme poverty, we have also witnessed the rise of...

This paper presents estimates of the relationship between the share of income accruing to the middle class and gross domestic product per capita of economies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The increase in gross domestic product per capita that these economies experienced during...

This paper proposes a model-based approach to estimate income boundaries for identifying the middle class in Kazakhstan over 2003-15. The approach exploits the subjective evaluation of Kazakhstan households about their social status, relating self-declared social class membership to income....

This report documents the progress South Africa has made in reducing poverty and inequality since the end of apartheid in 1994, with a focus on the period between 2006 and 2015. The main conclusions are as follows: First, by any measure, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the...

The outlook for the global economy has darkened amid elevated trade tensions. International trade and investment are moderating, trade tensions remain elevated, and financing conditions are tightening. Global growth is projected to moderate from a downwardly revised 3 percent in 2018 to 2.9...

This report sheds light on the extent to which earnings mobility and inequality of opportunity in access to the labor market have contributed to the increase in earnings inequality in Mauritius. Among the most important concerns about rising inequality is a situation where people become trapped...

Around the world, countries use a wide variety of poverty measurement methodologies. A common method used to measure poverty is based on levels of consumption - a person is considered poor if his or her consumption level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This note...

The previous decade in Egypt was marked by major internal and external shocks that have surely had severe implications for the evolution of the population's welfare. In recent years, social, political, and economic changes have transformed the landscape of the Egyptian society. On January 2011,...

The objective of this report is to present a snapshot of the welfare landscape in Djibouti that will help stakeholders understand poverty's determinants. Exploiting data from the 2017 household expenditure survey, as well as administrative and geospatial data, it provides a detailed analysis of...