ISLAMABAD – Pakistan was ranked at the 47th place among emerging economieson an Inclusive Development Index, while India is behind Pakistan at the62nd rank, according to World Economic Forum. (WEF)
Norway remains the world’s most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuaniaagain tops the list of emerging economies, the World Economic Forum (WEF)said while releasing the yearly index here before the start of its annualmeeting, to be attended by several world leaders includingUS President Donald Trump.
The index takes into account the “living standards, environmentalsustainability and protection of future generations from furtherindebtedness”, the WEF said. It urged the leaders to urgently move to a newmodel of inclusive growth and development, saying reliance on GDP as ameasure of economic achievement is fuelling short-termism and inequality.
Pakistan was ranked 52nd last year, while India was at 60thamong 79developing economies.
The 2018 index, which measures progress of 103 economies on threeindividual pillars — growth and development; inclusion; andinter-generational equity — has been divided into two parts. The first partcovers 29 advanced economies and the second 74 emerging economies.
The index has also classified the countries into five sub-categories interms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growthscore — receding, slowly receding, stable, slowly advancing and advancing.
Despite its low overall score, India is among the ten emerging economieswith ‘advancing’ trend.
Only two advanced economies have shown ‘advancing’ trend. Among advancedeconomies, Norway is followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland andDenmark in the top five.
Small European economies dominate the top of the index, with Australia (9)the only non-European economy in the top 10. Of the G7 economies, Germany(12) ranks the highest. It is followed by Canada (17), France (18), the UK(21), the US (23), Japan (24) and Italy (27).
The top-five most inclusive emerging economies are Lithuania, Hungary,Azerbaijan, Latvia and Poland. Performance is mixed among BRICS economies,with the Russian Federation ranking 19th, followed by China (26), Brazil(37), India (62) and South Africa (69).
Of the three pillars that make up the index, India ranks 72nd forinclusion, 66th for growth and development and 44th for inter-generationalequity.
The neighbouring countries ranked above India include Sri Lanka (40),Bangladesh (34) and Nepal (22). The countries ranked better than India alsoinclude Mali, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Ukraine, Serbia, Philippines,Indonesia, Iran, Macedonia, Mexico, Thailand and Malaysia.
Although China ranks first among emerging economies in GDP per capitagrowth (6.8 per cent) and labour productivity growth (6.7 per cent) since2012, its overall score is brought down by lacklustre performance oninclusion, the WEF said.
It found that decades of prioritising economic growth over social equityhas led to historically high levels of wealth and income inequality andcaused governments to miss out on a virtuous circle in which growth isstrengthened by being shared more widely and generated without undulystraining the environment.
The WEF also said that rich and poor countries alike are struggling toprotect future generations, as it cautioned political and business leadersagainst expecting higher growth to be a panacea for the socialfrustrations, including those of younger generations who have shaken thepolitics of many countries in recent years.