South East Europe Regular Economic Report No. 5 : First Insights into Promoting Shared Prosperity in South East Europe

Long-term economic growth is the key
driver for increasing the economic wellbeing of the
population, but the pattern and the incidence of growth also
matter. Economic growth narrowly based on certain enclave
sectors or benefitting small groups is neither socially
stable nor sustainable. Along these lines, the World Bank
recently revised its institutional strategy, establishing
two goals, namely: (i) ending extreme global poverty, the
traditional goal of the institution, by reducing the
percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day
globally to 3 percent by 2030, and (ii) promoting shared
prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40
percent of the population. Furthermore, as an overarching
condition, the World Bank aims to achieve those goals in a
way that is environmentally, economically and socially
sustainable to ensure that welfare of the population is not
increased at the expense of future generations or specific
groups in society. This paper presents first insights into
shared prosperity in SEE6 countries. First, it looks at the
incidence of growth in SEE6 in the context of the Europe and
Central Asia region to determine whether economic growth
knowledge gaps are discussed in the paper. The analysis is
limited by the availability of micro-data and thus covers
different periods by country, depending on each one's
most recent data available. Unless otherwise noted, periods
refer to: Albania (2008-2012), Bosnia and Herzegovina
(2007), Kosovo (2006-2011), FYR Macedonia (2003-2008),
Montenegro (2006-2011) and Serbia (2007-2010).