UN report says widening gap between rich and poor nations persists

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The gap between rich and poor countries is widening, the United Nations said, blaming unfulfilled promises made by many governments last year and citing mounting pressures on development finance. The U.N. report assessing progress on a blueprint adopted in Seville, Spain, last June was released ahead of next week’s spring meetings in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The report examined whether countries delivered on the Seville Commitment, an agreement meant to narrow inequality and help achieve U.N. development goals for 2030. It said that despite the commitments, actions agreed to by many countries remained unfulfilled, contributing to a growing divide between wealthy and poorer nations.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said the report was prepared to upgrade global growth, but she said the Iran war has darkened the outlook for the world economy. The report’s release came with the IMF and World Bank gathering in Washington, where finance ministers and central bankers typically review global economic conditions and consider policy responses.

Li Junhua, the U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said geopolitical tensions were compounding developing countries’ struggles to attract financing. He called it “an extremely perilous time for international cooperation,” saying “geopolitical considerations are increasingly shaping economic relations and financial policies.”

The report also pointed to other forces that it said are widening the gap, including rising trade barriers and repeated climate-related shocks. It said the effect of those pressures is particularly harmful to developing countries seeking investment and financing to support growth.

At last year’s conference in Seville, leaders of many nations, but not the United States, unanimously adopted the Seville Commitment, which the U.N. report said aimed at closing a $4 trillion annual financing gap for development. The commitment called for scaling up investments in developing countries and reforming parts of the international financial architecture, including the World Bank and the IMF.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called for major changes to the institutions, and the report said the criticism aligns with outside concerns that developing countries have grown frustrated with the United States and European allies dominating decision-making at the financial institutions. The report described the U.N. commitment as “the best hope” to close the widening financial gap.

The report said implementation faced setbacks in 2025, when Li said 25 countries decreased their development assistance to poorer countries, resulting in a 23% overall drop from 2024. He said the biggest decline—59%—was from the United States, and he said preliminary data indicated a further 5.8% decline expected in 2026.

For trade policy, the report cited tariffs as a major impact on developing countries, including those imposed by the Trump administration. It said average tariffs on exports from the world’s poorest nations surged from 9% to 28% in 2025, and it said for developing countries excluding China, average tariffs increased from 2% to 19%.