Reducing Inequality in Asia: Sharing the Growth Dividend
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Sonali Jain-Chandra, Kalpana Kochhar and Tidiane Kinda Versions in 中文 (Chinese), 日本語 (Japanese) Asia continues to be the world’s growth leader, but the gains from growth are less widely shared than before. Until about 1990, Asia grew rapidly and secured large gains in poverty reduction while simultaneously achieving a fairly equitable society. Since the early 1990s, however, the region has witnessed widening income inequality that has accompanied its robust expansion—a break from its own remarkable past. This matters because elevated levels of inequality are harmful for the pace and sust ..read more
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Unemployment: Troubles Ahead for Emerging Markets
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Prakash Loungani and Zidong An Version in Español (Spanish) Forecasts of real GDP growth attract a lot of media attention. But what matters more to the person on the street is how growth translates into jobs. Unfortunately, the mediocre growth outlook of recent years may lead to a disturbing outlook for jobs, particularly among fuel-exporting countries and in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The global picture Chart 1 provides a measure of the global unemployment rate based on data for 116 countries, of which 37 countries are classified as "advanced" (a term used in the IMF’s W ..read more
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Globalization, Skills & Inequality
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
by iMFdirect We should have seen a decrease in inequality with globalization, but that's not what has happened in the last 25 years, according to Nobel Laureate and Harvard Professor Eric Maskin. While there are a number of reasons to care about inequality, he says there is a high correlation between high inequality and social and political unrest, with consequences for a country's political and economic stability. In this podcast interview with Professor Maskin, he explores how and why inequality is a widespread phenomenon that affects rich and poor countries alike. While it was widely e ..read more
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It’s Mostly Food: How to Tame Indian Inflation
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Rahul Anand and Paul Cashin After being low for decades, inflation in India trended higher from the mid-2000s. It reached 10–11 percent by 2008, and remained elevated at double digits for several years. Even though inflation fell by almost half in 2014, inflation expectations have remained high. High and persistent inflation in recent years has presented serious macroeconomic challenges in India, increasing the country’s domestic and external vulnerabilities. As Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan pointed out at the 8th R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture in 2014, “inflation is a destruct ..read more
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Doing It All—Women Boost the Bottom Line for Home, Firm, and Country
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Christine Lagarde (Versions in عربي, 中文, Español, Français, 日本語, Русский, Deutsch, and Italiano) International Women’s Day—March 8—is one of my favorite days. It is a time to celebrate the impressive progress women at all levels of the career ladder have made in recent decades. More women in the labor force, and in more senior positions is good news for women, for their companies, and for their countries’ economies. A new IMF staff study finds that in Europe, national policies, even taking account of personal preferences, can boost women’s participation in the workforce and enhance their ..read more
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It’s Getting Hot in Here: Climate Change
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
by iMFdirect World leaders are meeting in Paris to forge a new climate deal.  We interviewed two  leading thinkers on climate, Nick Stern and Christiana Figueres. In this podcast, Nick Stern, Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, says the world is not yet on the two degree path as carbon emissions continue to rise. Stern is author of “The Low-Carbon Road” in the December issue of Finance & Development. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/233800710" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true ..read more
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The Effects of Wage Moderation: Can Internal Devaluations Work?
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Jorg Decressin and Prakash Loungani Devaluation is often part of the remedy for a country in financial trouble. Devaluation boosts the competitiveness of a country’s exports and curtails imports by making them more costly. Together, the higher exports and the reduced imports generate some of the financial resources needed to help the country get out of trouble. For countries that belong to—and want to stay in—a currency union, however, devaluation is not an option. This was the situation facing several euro area economies at the onset of the global financial crisis: capital had been flowi ..read more
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Tackling Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa Could Yield Mileage on Growth
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
by Antoinette Sayeh (Versions in Français and Português) Rising inequality is both a moral and economic issue that has implications for the general health of the global economy, and impacts prosperity and growth. So it’s not surprising that reducing inequality is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals  adopted by world leaders at the United Nations summit in September. I often discuss with my colleagues where sub-Saharan Africa stands with respect to these objectives. Unfortunately, the region remains one of the most unequal in the world, on par with Latin America (see Chart ..read more
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Migration: A Global Issue in Need of a Global Solution
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Christine Lagarde (Versions in عربي, 中文, Français, 日本語, Русский, Türk, and Español) As the Group of Twenty leaders gather in Turkey this weekend, they will have on their minds heartbreaking images of displaced people fleeing countries gripped by armed conflict and economic distress.  The surge of refugees in the last few years has reached levels not seen in decades. And these numbers could increase further in the near future.  The immediate priority must be to help the refugees—who bear the heaviest burden, and too often tragically—with better access to shelter, health care and quality e ..read more
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Sovereign Wealth Funds in the New Era of Oil
IMF Blog on Inequality
by IMFBlog
5y ago
By Rabah Arezki, Adnan Mazarei, and Ananthakrishnan Prasad  (Versions in عربي and 中文) As a result of the oil price plunge, the major oil-exporting countries are facing budget deficits for the first time in years. The growth in the assets of their sovereign wealth funds, which were rising at a rapid rate until recently, is now slowing; some have started drawing on their buffers. In the short run, this phenomenon is not cause for alarm. Most oil exporters have enough buffers to withstand a temporary drop in oil prices. But what will happen if low oil prices persist, and how will policymakers ..read more
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