BERLIN, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The average global quality of governance and market economy has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years, a study by the German Bertelsmann Foundation published on Thursday finds.
The Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) is published since 2006 and analyzes political and economic developments in 129 developing and transformation countries.
This year's study warns that the countries assessed are addressing contemporary global economic challenges only insufficiently and frequently on the backs of the poor and marginalized citizens. Many governments were hereby unable to respond adequately to the growing social, ethnic and religious conflicts.
The authors viewed unsatisfactory socio-economic development to be one of the greatest impediments to development towards democracy and economic sustainability. According to the study, there were massive poverty and a high level of social inequality in 72 developing and transformation countries.
In 22 of them, including India, South Africa and Venezuela, there was even a decline in the level of socio-economic development in the last ten years. During the same time period, the proportion of countries achieving a moderate to good level of social inclusion sank from a third to a quarter.
The Bertelsmann Foundation's assessments are based on detailed country reports authored by 250 experts from leading international universities and think tanks.
