Deng Xiaoping said: “Let some people get rich first.” He was referring to China but it turns out he could have been talking about Asia as a whole.
In the past two decades, rapid growth across much of Asia has widened the wealth gap. That has caused “a great convergence” with Latin America, according to one development official. While inequality has narrowed in much of South and Central America, in Asia it has been going the other way, according to Vinod Thomas, director-general of the Asian Development Bank. Asian inequality as measured by the Gini index rose about 1 per cent each year throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
In a new report, the ADB looks at the effect growth has had on poverty reduction, inequality and social welfare. It concludes that raw growth numbers should no longer serve as the be all and end all in assessing a country’s performance. Broader measures of “improvements in human welfare and living standards”, brought about by what it calls “an inclusive pattern of growth”, are equally important.