Can long-term global growth be saved?

ByJames Manyika, Jonathan Woetzel, Richard Dobbs, Jaana Remes, Eric Labaye

January 2015| 

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Over the past 50 years, global economic growth was exceptionally rapid. The world economy expanded sixfold. Average per capita income almost tripled. Hundreds of millions of people were lifted out of poverty. Yet unless we can dramatically improve productivity, the next half century will look very different. The rapid expansion of the past five decades will be seen as an aberration of history, and the world economy will slide back toward its relatively sluggish long-term growth rate (Exhibit 1).