20世纪40年代以后，分化之势有所放缓，但直到1990年前后，新的趋势才开始浮现 — — 即发达国家的平均收入和世界其他部分开始趋同。
It slowed after the 1940’s, but it was only around 1990 that an entirely new trend could be observed – convergence between average incomes in the group of rich countries and the rest of the world.