Has the Global Middle Class Stalled for Good?

The emerging world—lower and middle income countries alike—found China’s insatiable appetite for commodities in recent years a godsend. For the new middle class a commodity supercycle was the simplest route to plenty. If a country had commodities it benefited either from direct trade, or though persistently higher prices of nearly all industrial commodities. By meeting China’s surging demand, the global middle class was going to grow forever.

According to Pew Research Center data, this global middle class—a bracket including those making between $10.01 and $20 per day on an adjusted basis—grew from 7 percent of the global population in 2001 to 13 percent in 2011. That’s not something to be disappointed about. The low-income bracket—$2.01 to $10 per day—increased from 50 to 56 percent, which, in the context of a rapid decline in the percentage of the world’s poor, from 29 to 15 percent, is quite the feat. But it is also not the entire story.