Global North must stop growing for India to catch up in prosperity: Piketty

Thomas Piketty says rich nations must curb growth and cut fossil-fuel use if countries like India are to achieve developed-world living standards by 2100

Celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty has argued that rich nations will have to stop growing if others such as India are to achieve living standards comparable with those of the developed world. 

“However, for this the global North has to stop growing, because we have to take seriously the aspiration of countries like India to reach the same level of prosperity as the global North,” Piketty, who is a professor at the Paris School of Economics, said on Thursday. 

“This aspiration is not going to go away even though people in the North can imagine a world where it will go away,” he said in an interview over a new ‘Global Justice Report’, published by the World Inequality Lab that was co-founded by him. 

Piketty said India could reach a per capita income of 60,000 euros in purchasing power parity terms by the end of the century, equivalent to about 5,000 euros per month at present, as part of a broader vision of global income convergence. 

“Our plan is to get India and the global South to the level of rich countries today, or even a bit higher to 5,000 euros as compared to 4,500 euros in North America today,” he said. 

According to Piketty, such convergence is possible while keeping global warming within manageable limits, but only through major changes in production and consumption patterns. 

“We can reach 5,000 euro per month for all countries by 2100, including India. But, this requires different production systems than the one of the US today. So, it will be much less fossil fuels,” he said. 

Piketty said India’s immediate priority should remain economic catch-up. “For countries like India, the priority is to get more prosperity, to have higher income,” he said. “At this stage, the real issue for India is convergence and trying to foster convergence.”