middle income trap

Definitions

The situation where a country that attains a certain income gets stuck at that level, being unable to compete with other more developed economies in the high-value-added market.

Equivalents

Examples

“Thailand and Malaysia are hemmed in by the so-called "middle-income trap⟳", which suggests that while countries can move⟳ up from the ranks of the very poor, moving further forward⟳ is more complex, as competitiveness falls off and costs for investors increase⟳.”

“Chinese economists have⟳ for many years also worried about the “middle-income trap⟳”, a situation where a country that has reached a certain level of income gets stuck for a long time.”

CEFR level