Inequality Stats Yet Again

In a new report, Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective, the IMF found the top 1% has experienced the largest gains, according to the report. That group now accounts for about 10% of total income in developed economies. Despite the fact that the top 1% got richer everywhere, poverty in emerging countries has been declining and poverty in advanced countries has largely risen. When using the method of comparing the earnings of the 90th percentile to the earning of the 10th percentile, inequality grew most in the US and the UK.

It also found that when the income share of the top 20% increases, the country’s GDP declines over the medium term. In China more than one-third of the country’s wealth is concentrated in the top 1%.