Meaning of middle income trap | Babel Free

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