Ana Revenga, World Bank Group Senior Director of the Poverty Global Practice, to address the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development
Moscow, April 7, 2015 - The National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in cooperation with the World Bank Group is hosting the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development “Modernizing the Economy and Society” on April 7-10, 2015.
Ana Revenga, World Bank Group Senior Director of the Poverty Global Practice, is one of the key-note speakers during the panel discussion on “Global Trends and Economic Growth in Russia: Old Challenges and New Risks”. The plenary session will bring together senior Russian officials and high-level representatives of international organizations. In her presentation, Revenga will look into challenges and opportunities for shared prosperity in Russia.
The World Bank Group assesses progress on shared prosperity by monitoring the growth of the bottom 40% of the income distribution in every country. Growth has been inclusive globally, with the bottom 40 growing faster than the average in more than 70% of countries for which data is available. However, in about 1/5 of these cases growth rates are very low (under 2%) limiting progress on this goal, and in some high growth countries, including in Europe and Central Asia, shared prosperity has been spurred by social transfers which may not be sustainable.
"Russia's middle class doubled between 2001 and 2010, driven by a strong upward economic mobility trend," said Ana Revenga, World Bank Senior Director of Poverty and Equity Global Practice. "Russia has outperformed the other BRICS in middle class growth, and, as a result, the share of the middle class in Russia is one of the largest in Europe and Central Asia Region of the Bank. However, Russia needs to sustain and deepen progress in income mobility. It will require improving competitiveness, removing market distortions, and promoting non-oil private sector job creation, as well as fostering effectiveness, accountability and responsiveness of public service delivery to needs and demands of several population groups.”
