Finland Times

 

Income inequality and unemployment top the ranking of ten major trends for the year ahead, said a latest report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Friday.

     

The annual report, titled the Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015, identified top ten trends across the world requiring immediate attention and profound solutions over the coming year.

     

It listed the top ten trends for 2015 as: deepening income inequality, persistent jobless growth, lack of leadership, rising geo-strategic competition, weakening of representative democracy, rising pollution in the developing world, increasing occurrence of severe weather events, intensifying nationalism, increasing water stress and growing importance of health in the economy.

     

According to WEF, the first two trends were viewed as increasingly concerning problems, as stagnating wages contributed to a vicious cycle of entrenched inequality through suppressed growth and employment prospects.

     

Apart from economic challenges, two political trends -- the rise of geo-strategic competition and intensifying nationalism -- made into the list for the first time since the report was initially launched in 2010.

     

The report highlighted difficulties many health systems face in adapting to demographic change, rises in non-communicable diseases and the wider threat from outbreaks of infectious diseases.

     

"Never before has the need to find new solutions to shared problems been so clear -- if only we were able to organize ourselves more effectively. Today's challenges, which are global in scope, heavily interlinked in nature and critical in urgency, will only be addressed through greater understanding and stronger collaboration by all stakeholders," Espen Eide, managing director at the WEF, said in a statement.