Developing countries have enjoyed faster growth since 2002, but even the largest among them will over the coming decade be faced with serious policy challenges, greater than those in the past, says senior UNCTAD economist Richard Kozul-Wright.
Writing on the "PovertyMatters" blog of UK's The Guardian newspaper on 7 May 2012, Dr. Kozul-Wright says that the narrative that global market forces have delivered rising prosperity, and that "business as usual" through sharp austerity in the North and rapid opening-up in the South is the way forward even in the face of the financial crisis of 2008, amounts to fundamentally wrong advice.
He notes that growth rates in developing countries dropped sharply as capital flows went into reverse, commodity prices tumbled and exports collapsed. However, some of the larger developing economies showed remarkable resilience in the face of economic contagion, in part because they had resisted the "siren calls" of the financial markets.
What is needed to secure inclusive growth in the South is a continuing overhaul of development policies and a more stable external environment, says the senior UNCTAD economist.
The full text of Dr. Richard Kozul-Wright's blog can be viewed here
