Geopolitics Magazine September - October 2014 | Page 29

Geopolitics & Daily News Magazine Γράφει ο Θ. Πιτικάρης ΒΑΒ,ΒSc, MSc Οικονομικός Αναλυτής Υποψήφιος Διδάκτωρ Μακροοικονομικής Στρατηγικής Has the world become more equal/unequal in the last three/four decades? While for European Union as a whole, inequality is becoming worse year by year as Eurostat mentioned in its Gini index tables (table 1), lack of high quality in every year’s data makes it difficult to provide a straight answer to the question of inequality development. Table 1 Gini Index Euro area/ EU (source http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&plugin=0&language=en&pcode=tessi190) 2005 Euroarea 18 EU 27 Sweden Germany Greece UK Spain Italy France 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 29,30 30,6 23,4 26,1 33,2 34,6 32,2 30 27,7 29,30 30,3 24 26,8 34,3 32,5 31,9 28 27,3 30,00 30,6 23,4 30,4 34,3 32,6 31,9 29 26,6 30,30 30,9 24 30,2 33,4 33,9 31,9 28 29,8 30,20 30,5 24,8 29,1 33,1 32,4 33 27 29,9 30,30 30,5 24,1 29,3 32,9 32,9 34,4 31,4 29,8 30,50 30,8 24,4 29 33,5 33 34,5 31 30,8 30,40 30,6 24,8 28,3 34,3 32,8 35 30,5 30,5 Table 2 Gini index from Major World Economies (source World Bank) 1999 Russia Federati on India China Argentin a USA 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 0,33 1 0,329 3 0,32 8 0,34 1 0 0,358 8 0,349 2 0,341 3 0,30 8 0,39 2 0,49 8 0 0 0 0 0 0,368 0 0 0 0,42 6 0,53 8 0,46 7 0,37 3 0 0 0 0,333 8 0,424 8 0,492 8 0,458 7 0,421 3 0 0,511 1 0,443 9 0,396 0 200 7 0,3 4 2008 2009 2010 0,342 1 0,340 7 0,337 5 0,3 8 0 0 0,368 0 0,426 3 0,462 6 0,462 7 0,401 1 0 0,420 6 0,461 3 0,462 8 0 0 0,53 0,547 0,501 0,477 0,4 0,444 4 2 8 2 7 9 0,46 0,462 0,471 0,472 0,4 0,453 2 2 3 8 2 Saudi 0 0,35 0,371 0,375 0,437 0,4 0 Arabia 7 4 1 1 2 Japan 0 0,691 0,48 0,455 0 0 0 0 0 7 3 1 Brazil 0,59 0 0,60 0,59 0,587 0,576 0,574 0,567 0,5 0,550 0,546 0,546 8 1 4 8 8 2 7 6 7 9 9 World Bank (table 2) data suggests that gap between the rich and poor is advancing every year, even though some countries have managed to reduce the gap between the rich and poor, this is not the dominant trend. Geopolitics.com.gr all rights reserved 2014 Page 27