NEW YORK 

The World Bank said that only six out of 26 countries classified as low-income are projected to reach middle-income status by 2050 if there is no sustained improvement in their growth rates. 

The findings come in a section published by the World Bank of the Global Economic Prospects Report, which will be released in January 2025, covering the performance of 26 low-income economies.

In a statement, the bank said the next 25 years could be decisive in terms of whether the world's 26 poorest countries will move to middle-income status.

Pointing out that these countries are among those where more than 40% of the population struggles to survive on less than $2.15 a day, the statement emphasized that the countries constitute the focal point of global efforts to end extreme poverty.

But progress in these countries has been stalled by escalating conflicts, frequent economic crises and persistently weak growth, the statement said.

Noting that progress in the last 25 years has mostly bypassed these countries, the statement noted that the World Bank classified 63 countries as “low-income” at the beginning of the 21st century.

The statement said that 39 countries including India, Indonesia and Bangladesh joined the ranks of “middle-income” countries, while Syria and South Sudan joined the ranks of “low-income” countries in the 2010s, adding that these countries have stagnated, with their GDP per capita growing at less than 0.1% annually over the past 15 years.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul