Ben S Bernanke: Lessons from emerging market economies on the sources of sustained growth

Good afternoon. I am pleased to participate in the Cleveland Clinic’s “Ideas for Tomorrow” series. My public remarks often concern short-run economic developments, but it is important once in a while to place those shorter-term developments in the context of the powerful longterm trends shaping the global economy. Of these trends, surely one of the most important is the rapid and sustained economic growth achieved by the emerging market economies. Today, by some measures at least, developing and emerging market economies now account for more than one-half of global economic activity, up substantially from less than one-third in 1980. Today I will discuss what the experience of the emerging markets teaches us about the sources of economic growth and conclude with some thoughts about the prospects for future growth in this critical part of the global economy.