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The World Economic Forum (WEF) has thrown its weight behind the global policy push to bring about inclusive growth.

The Forum has published an Inclusive Growth and Development report which lays out a policy roadmap to bring economic benefits to all in society and not just the 1%.

The report shows that countries need to do more to create policies that increase growth and reduce economic inequality.

The report ranks 112 world economies in seven main policy areas including the labour market and the findings show that ‘it is possible to be pro-inclusive and pro-growth at the same time”.

UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings, commenting on the report, said “This is an important contribution to policy making and confirms that the market left to itself will not bring about inclusive growth. It also confirms that a mix of policies and institutions are required to bring about broad based progress in living standards. The report shows that growth and a reduction in economic inequality go hand in hand.”

He added, “The findings provide further ammunition to those policymakers and economists, including Thomas Piketty, who have been arguing persuasively for several years that the inequality gap between rich and poor hampers growth. The labour movement has consistently argued that you have to lift all boats if you want to have sustainable growth and relying on the ‘trickle down’ economic thinking has failed.

“This report warrants close inspection by all policymakers around the world who are in a position to bring about real change by creating more socially inclusive growth. Here the union movement has an important role to play,” Jennings concluded.

WEF says its two-year study into the performance of 112 economies is a bid broaden the debate on inequality to find specific ways to change policies and institutions in order to improve living standards.  The study emphasizes labour market indicators including trade union density, collective bargaining coverage and co-operation in labour-employer relations.

Read the full report here