It slowed after the 1940’s, but it was only around 1990 that an entirely new trend could be observed – convergence between average incomes in the group of rich countries and the rest of the world. From 1990 to 2010, average per capita income in the emerging and developing countries grew almost three times as fast as average income in Europe, North America, and Japan, compared to lower or, at most, equal growth rates for almost two centuries.
&nbsp;“分化”在殖民地时代便已十分显著。20世纪40年代以后，分化之势有所放缓，但直到1990年前后，新的趋势才开始浮现——即发达国家的平均收入和世界其他部分开始趋同。从1990年到2010年，新兴和发展中国家平均人均收入比欧洲、北美和日本增长快出两倍，而在此前近两个世纪中，一直是后者胜出或打成平手。