## Chart of the Week: Grading the G-20 on its Growth Goals

_IMF Blog, November 19, 2018_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Chart of the Week: Grading the G-20 on its Growth Goals](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Helge Berger, Margaux MacDonald
- Published: November 19, 2018

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### Context and short-term outlook
- Publication date: November 19, 2018.
- The global expansion remains strong; the IMF’s 2018 report gives the G-20 good grades on the short-term outlook.
- Compared to last year’s report:
  - Output gaps have been closing (actual output is closer to potential).
  - Fewer people are unemployed.
  - Risks to the outlook have increased.

### Persistent structural challenges
- Progress toward more sustainable and balanced growth is slow:
  - External excess imbalances (surpluses and deficits) persist.
  - Debt levels remain high.
  - Productivity growth remains low.
- Inclusion is a new area of analysis in this year’s report and remains a challenge.

### Inclusive growth: evidence and distributional outcomes
- After 1990, inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient rose across most G-20 economies.
  - Some emerging economies experienced declines in inequality (noted examples include many Latin American countries and Turkey), but their inequality remains higher than in G-20 European and North American countries, which saw increases.
- Income gains since the financial crisis have been highly uneven:
  - Across the G-20, earners in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution, on average, earn only 8 percent of what earners in the top 10 percent make.
- Persistent inequalities reflect and reinforce uneven access to economic opportunities such as education, health care, and financial services.

### Policy actions and their expected impact
- Acting now and coordinating policies across the G-20 can:
  - Sustain strong global growth over the medium term.
  - Make growth more balanced and more widely shared.
- Many measures that lift productivity over the medium and long term will also make growth more inclusive.
  - The IMF estimates these measures will increase the level of G-20 GDP by close to 4 percent.

### Specific policy priorities highlighted
- Investment in human capital:
  - Strengthen education and workers’ skills to help economies adjust to new technologies and ensure broader sharing of technological gains.
- Financial inclusion and social insurance:
  - Enhance financial inclusion.
  - Adjust social safety nets and insurance systems to facilitate mobility across jobs, sectors, and borders.
- Redistribution:
  - Taxes and transfers will continue to play a major role in achieving more inclusive growth.
- Cooperation to contain risks:
  - Policymakers must work in parallel and together to contain risks, which will also help reduce inequality.
  - Reducing barriers to trade in services can temper risks from excess external imbalances, reduce trade tensions, and help lift incomes.

### Near-term deliverable
- The G-20 Surveillance Note was scheduled to be released on November 27 and will outline how policymakers must work together to contain risks and promote inclusive, sustainable, and balanced growth.

*Source: Chart of the Week: Grading the G-20 on its Growth Goals (IMF blog), November 19, 2018.*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Group of Twenty: Future of Work: Measurement and Policy Challenges, July 18, 2018**
  - [Group of Twenty: Future of Work: Measurement and Policy Challenges, July 18, 2018 (Markdown version)](/external/np/g20/pdf/2018/071818a.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Group of Twenty: Future of Work: Measurement and Policy Challenges, July 18, 2018 (PDF)](/external/np/g20/pdf/2018/071818a.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}
- **G-20 Report on Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth, November 19, 2018**
  - [G-20 Report on Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth, November 19, 2018 (Markdown version)](/external/np/g20/pdf/2018/111918.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [G-20 Report on Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth, November 19, 2018 (PDF)](/external/np/g20/pdf/2018/111918.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}

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## References

- [Português](https://www.imf.org/pt/News/Articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BLOG-1024x500-girls-in-school-EgonBomsch-Newscom-ibpremium122339.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BLOG-1024x500-girls-in-school-EgonBomsch-Newscom-ibpremium122339.jpg)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/eng-nov-12-g20-table.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/eng-nov-12-g20-table.jpg)
- [remains strong](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/10/08/global-growth-plateaus-as-economic-risks-materialize/)
- [G-20](https://www.imf.org/external/np/g20/111918.htm)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/eng-nov-12-g20-map_rev.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/eng-nov-12-g20-map_rev.jpg)
- [5 Things You Need to Know About Inequality](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/01/23/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-inequality/)
- [More People, More Technology, More Jobs: How to Build Inclusive Growth](https://blogs.imf.org/2017/12/04/more-people-more-technology-more-jobs-how-to-build-inclusive-growth/)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/11/19/blog-chart-of-the-week-grading-the-g-20-on-its-growth-goals_