ABSTRACT
Global economic output, the total of all goods and services produced, grew from $6 trillion in 1950 to $39 trillion in 1998, expanding nearly three times faster than population. Although there is an enormous income gap between industrial and developing countries, the latter's economies are growing far more rapidly. The enormous growth during the 1990s, particularly in East Asia, is due to the huge increase in private capital flows into developing countries. Incomes have risen most rapidly in developing countries where population growth has slowed the most, including, importantly, the countries of East Asia South Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. With population growth rates remaining at close to 3 percent or more a year, most of any economic growth that occurred has been absorbed by the increasing population, leaving little to raise incomes. It is easy to foresee a scenario of continuing forest destruction, aquifer depletion, and ecosystem collapse that would lead to economic decline.
