Growth is picking up in the OECD area–at different speeds across regions–and at a faster pace than expected in the previous Economic Outlook (November 2009). Strong growth in emerging-market economies is contributing significantly. However, risks to the global recovery could be higher now, given the speed and magnitude of capital inflows in emerging-market economies and instability in sovereign debt markets.

As the world economy splutters back to life, policymakers have been focused on ending the jobs crisis. But despite the arsenal of policies aimed at assisting young people, the long-term unemployed and the unskilled, one of the most vulnerable groups of workers risks being forgotten.

Health spending rises; Round up; Soundbites; Benvenuto!; Economy; Food speculation question; Chinese flexibility welcomed; Slovenia joins the OECD; Plus ça change...

What has changed in the decade since former OECD experts Flip de Kam and Chiara Bronchi wrote one of this magazine’s most downloaded articles, “The income taxes people really pay”. There have been a few changes, though the need to look behind headline tax rates remains as true as ever.

The number of people worldwide living in absolute poverty–the World Bank defines this as people surviving on less than $1.25 a day–has fallen by about half a billion since 1990. China is a major contributor to the decline: its absolute poverty fell from about 60% in 1990 to only around 16% in 2005. India, too, saw some progress, as poverty there fell from 60% to 42%.

The road from conflict to peace and from destruction to development is far from smooth. In fact, research shows that half of all countries that have been ravaged by conflict are at war again within a decade. Transition Financing: Building a Better Response, part of the OECD’s Conflict and Fragility series of books, examines how the international community can help countries move from resolving conflicts to a lasting peace, grounded in what the authors describe as “sustainable development”. It involves a transition to greater national ownership and a greater capacity to ensure public safety and welfare.

The staging of the World Cup in South Africa was a tribute to that country’s transformation since Apartheid in the 1990s. However, poverty persists. Some 54% of South Africans are poor, based on a national definition of poverty of living on $4 a day. And poverty and inequality still reflect race, as our graph shows. While widespread access to services such as housing, water and electricity has improved substantially, the link between race and poverty remains remarkably strong by international standards, as the income of black South Africans continues to lag behind whites and Asians in the country.