The new world economic order
International Viewpoint #200 • February 18, 1991
WORLD ECONOMY in terms of economic development.
Growth in per capita GDP in the Middle East ceased in 1977 and declined thereafter. By 1985 per capita GDP had declined by 10% and was back to its level of 1971. A decade and a half of economic development had been lost.
GDP per capita in the western hemisphere — Central America and the Carib-
THE following article, drawing together data on the latest stage of world capitalist development, has been shortened for space reasons. It first appeared in the February/March 1990 edition of the British socialist review Socialist Action. PETER DREW
T is almost impossible to describe adequately the scale of imperialism's economic offensive, and its consequences, launched since the 1970s — in particular since the adoption of 'Reaganism' in the United States, so extensive is the scope of that assault and so carefully is it screened from the consciousness of the population of the imperialist countries. A small corner of the veil was lifted for a wider audience by Susan George's excellent "A Fate Worse Than Debt" but this presented only a tiny fraction of what is really taking place. What we attempt here is to present a systematic picture of the latest stage in capitalist development.
Taking the different sectors of the world capitalist economy in turn the chief feature of the development over the last three decades is the progressive slowing down of the growth of GDP per capita. The annual average growth of GDP per capita for the world capitalist economy declined from 2.6% in 1960-70, to 1.6% in 1970-80, to 1.3% in 1980-87 — the latest year for which aggregate figures are available. Over the last thirty years the growth of GDP per capita in the world capitalist economy has halved (see Table 1).
It is immediately apparent that this slowdown is completely differentiated. Growth of GDP per capita in Asia has not slowed but accelerated. The annual rate of growth of GDP per capita in the imperialist economies declined from 3.6% in 1960-70, to 2.3% in 1970-80, to 2.1% in 1980-87.
But the most striking thing is that, since 1980, the rate of growth of GDP per capita in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America has become negative. That is, per capita GDP, the best index of overall living standards, is declining for these contiimpoverishment has set in. These annual average negative growth rates were -1.0% - 2.2% for Africa and - 2.7% for the Middle East in the period to 1985 — which is the latest year for which figures are available. These represent absolute falls in per capita GDP of 14% in Africa, 10% in the Middle East and 7% in Latin America and
In the 1960s all sectors of the world capitalist economy were growing, if at an uneven rate. In the period from the 1950s until the beginning of the 1970s capital could legitimately be claiming to develop the entire world capitalist economy -even if no rational person would accept the consequences of that particular type of "development".