Lack of infrastructure: transportation, goods n services, energy, potable water, etc.
Increasing population.
{ More than half of all IDA countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa; 14 are in East Asia and eight are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thirty-one have per capita incomes of less than $1,315 a year. They include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Haiti.
… Snip…
despite their young populations - a demographic boon at a time when populations were aging nearly everywhere else, rich natural resources and abundant solar-energy potential, private and government creditors had been backing away from them. }
Does GDP decrease when population increases without growth in production?
As GDP decreases, the country becomes vulnerable to predation - Haiti, Honduras, some of the countries in Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa, etc.
Wealthy countries are being pressured to to accept immigrants from poorer countries.
From the link:
“Kose said growth in many IDA countries had already begun to taper off in these countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it would be just 3.4% in 2020-2024…”
It seems they are still showing economic growth – 18% over five years – more than the US over the same period. They were hit hard by the pandemic at the beginning of the period – who wasn’t? – and then rebounded at a slower rate of growth than before the plague. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine hit everyone with higher energy and food prices, supply chain disruptions. And then there was global inflation. No wonder their growth rate is slower.
The World Bank report does note that “Human development indicators show significant progress in IDA countries in recent decades.”
For example:
~ Since 2000 average life expectancy has risen from 58 to 65 years.
~ Maternal mortality rates have dropped from 5.3 to 3.0 per 1000 live births.
Also “access to basic sanitation, electricity, and the internet has improved substantially in IDA countries since 2000”
