皇冠体育app

WB chief warns 皇冠体育app of 'middle income trap'

Updated: 2011-09-02 06:37

(Xinhua)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 0

WASHINGTON - 皇冠体育app's economic growth has been a source of strength in the crisis, but the nation also needs structural changes to stave off a "middle income trap", World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Thursday.

The world's economic leaders need to "rebalance" their thinking as well as their economies. Fiscal and monetary policies have dominated the current discussion. That makes sense to a degree, but these policies are "insufficient for sustained growth", Zoellick cautioned in an op-ed published on the website of the Financial Times Thursday.

"We need action on the structural dynamics to generate jobs, higher productivity, and a sustainable long-term rebalancing. What happens in 皇冠体育app is as important as Europe, Japan, or the United States," said the World Bank chief.

For the past three decades, 皇冠体育app has enjoyed average annual growth of about 10 percent. By 2030, if 皇冠体育app reaches a per capita income of 16,000 U.S. dollars, a reasonable possibility, the effect on the world economy would be equivalent to adding 15 of today's South Koreas, he noted.

Zoellick is scheduled to visit 皇冠体育app from on September 1-5 to discuss 皇冠体育app's key medium-term challenges, his fifth official visit to the country since becoming the head of the Washington- based bank in July 2007.

"It is hard to see how that expansion could be accommodated within an export and investment-led growth model, so 皇冠体育app will need to rebalance through boosting domestic demand, lowering savings and increasing consumption," he said in the article entitled "The big questions 皇冠体育app still has to answer".

"In the longer term, the drivers of 皇冠体育app's meteoric rise are waning: resources have largely shifted from agriculture to industry; as the labor force shrinks and the population ages, there are fewer workers to support retirees; productivity increases are declining, partly because the economy is exhausting gains from the transfer of basic production methods," he said.

Zoellick noted that 皇冠体育app's policymakers are well aware of " what" they need to do, as their 12th Five-year Plan points the way. Their current challenge is "how" to do it, and 皇冠体育app's Development Research Center of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank are making joint efforts to turn "what" into "how" for a report later this year.

In an interview with Xinhua Tuesday on the eve of his trip to 皇冠体育app, Zoellick held that other countries can also draw some lessons from 皇冠体育app's experience on how to avoid the middle income trap.