Middle-income countries

Many Latin American middle-income countries haven't become high-income countries and have half the labor productivity of countries that are technological leaders.

See also: Middle-income trap

Middle-income countries is the term which the World Bank defines as: "economies with a gross national income (GNI) per capita between $1,136 and $13,845 as of 2024. MICs consist of lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle-income countries, both of which are part of the income categories that the World Bank uses to classify economies for operational and analytical purposes," as measured in US Petrodollars.

Asian Development Bank: The middle-income countries transition to high-income counties around the globe: Characteristics of graduation and slowdown

The Asian Development Bank is an institution established in 1966 with 31 offices in the world designed to promote social and economic development in Asia. The Bank is headquartered in Manilla, Philippines.

The abstract for the Asian Development Bank 2015 paper entitled The Middle-Income Transition around the Globe: Characteristics of Graduation and Slowdown indicates:

“

The paper investigates the situation of middle-income economies around the world. Since 1965, only 18 economies with a population of more than 3 million and not dependent on oil exports have made the transition to being high-income. Many more have not been able to move beyond the middle-income stage. We conduct statistical tests of differences between two groups of economies across a range of growth and development variables. The results suggest that middle-income economies are particularly weak in the following areas: governance, infrastructure, savings and investment, inequality, and quality—but not quantity—of education. The findings are used to suggest whether the People’s Republic of China is successfully progressing through the middle-income stage or whether it may get caught in a middle-income trap.

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Innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries

See also: Innovation

Below are articles on innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries:

• Innovation key to avoiding middle-income trap, Daily Star, 2024

• Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Innovate or Perish, Asian Development Bank, 2017

• Caught in the Middle? The Economics of Middle-Income Traps, 2015

• The Middle-Income Trap: Stagnant Innovation and Growth in Latin America

Middle-income trap

The middle-income country of China is endeavoring to become a high-income country.

See: Middle-income trap

See also: Middle-income trap and Innovation and Productivity

The middle-income trap refers to an economic situation where a middle-income country is failing to transform itself to a high-income economy due to its rising costs and declining competitiveness (Historically few countries successfully manage the transition from low to middle to high income).

The Asia Society describes the middle-income trap thusly: "The “middle-income trap” is a theory of economic development in which wages in a country rise to the point that growth potential in export-driven low-skill manufacturing is exhausted before it attains the innovative capability needed to boost productivity and compete with developed countries in higher value-chain industries. Thus, there are few avenues for further growth — and wages stagnate."

The 2023 Mint News article There is no easy escape from the middle-income trap indicates: "Graduating from middle income to developed world status is the greatest prize in development economics. Only a handful of East Asian and Central European countries have made the transition so far, along with a few fortunate resource-rich countries."

Middle-income trap and various countries:

• Material related to whether or not China escapes the middle-income trap
• India and the middle-income trap
• Philippines is projected to move from a lower middle-income country to an upper middle-income country. Philippines and the middle-income trap

Former high-income countries that are now middle-income countries

Former high-income countries and the year(s) during which they held such classification is/are shown in parentheses.

• Argentina (2014, 2017)

• Equatorial Guinea (2007–14)

• Mauritius (2019)

• Mayotte (1990)

• Netherlands Antilles (1994–2009)

• Palau (2016–20)

• Venezuela (2014)