The old "third world" is knocking spots off the rich world when it comes to economic growth. The International Monetary Fund expects "emerging market and developing countries" to grow by 6.6% this year, the fastest pace for at least 30 years. Indeed, all of the 25 emerging economies tracked each week by The Economist are currently enjoying positive GDP growth for the first time since we launched our emerging-market indicators over a decade ago (see page 122). Even this year's laggard, South Africa, is growing at a reasonable rate of 2.5%. In the past, as one region sprinted, another usually stumbled, but today rapid growth is more evenly spread across emerging economies. Asia and the former Soviet Union are both expected to see GDP increase by close to 8% this year. Latin America, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa are all tipped to grow by around 5%. Top of the league are Turkey and Venezuela: both countries' GDP shot up by more than 13% in the year to the second quarter. China continues to grow at an annual rate of almost 10%. More surprising, given their history, are the performances of India, Argentina and Russia, which all enjoyed GDP growth of 7% or more in the year to the second quarter.
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