ABSTRACT
This part lays out the key facts and fi ndings that emerged from the analysis in this book.
• Developing Asia is experiencing an increase in inequality.
Asia’s sustained rapid gross domestic product (GDP) growth helped more than 700 million people escape poverty slashing the percentage of people living at or below the $1.25/day poverty line from 52% in 1990 to 21% in 2010. The Gini coeffi cient, a widely used measure of inequality in per capita income or expenditure, rose from the early 1990s to the late 2000s in 11 of 28 Asian countries that provide comparable data. Those 11 countries hold 82% of Asia’s population. As a result of increasing inequality, there is growing popular demand for public policy, including fi scal policy, to tackle it.
