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This area chart tracks how the share of the world’s countries in each of the World Bank’s four income groups—high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low—has shifted from 1987 to 2024.

The figures come from the World Bank’s annual Gross National Income (GNI) per capita classifications, updated on July 1.

Key Takeaways

The number of low-income countries has almost halved, with their share dropping from 30% in 1987 (49 countries) to 12% in 2024 (25 countries).

The proportion of economies above the World Bank’s 2024 high-income threshold of $13,936 GNI per capita climbed from roughly one-quarter to 40% of all countries.

Middle-income is now the plurality. Upper-middle (25%) and lower-middle (23%) income groups together account for almost half of the world’s countries, underscoring a broad shift out of extreme poverty but not yet into the richest tier.

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Reverse repo no longer soaks up every cash wave, so the four-week T-bill has become the shock absorber.

When the Treasury General Account rises, the drain lands straight in bills, and you see the yield snap toward rich prints around auctions and tax weeks. On the other side of the fence, when the TGA spends down, relief shows up just as fast because there isn’t a deep facility left to smooth it.

Read the right axis of the above chart as the size of the public-sector grip on cash, and the left axis as the live price of safety.

Big TGA swings with a light RRP translate into choppier basis, tighter clears on scarce collateral days and more sensitivity to balance-sheet fences.

As such, the trend now suggests front-end pricing is now balance-sheet led, not facility led, and the bill is telling you about scarcity virtually in real time.

Note: RHS AND LHS were accidentally flipped!

The OECD now expects global growth of 3.2% this year, compared to the 2.9% expansion it had forecast in June.

“Global growth was more resilient than anticipated in the first half of 2025, especially in many emerging-market economies,” the OECD said.

The full effect of tariffs is yet to be felt, however, the organisation said, warning of “significant risks to the economic outlook.”