Bill Gates: No poor countries by 2035

 Bill Gates has predicted that by 2035 there will be almost no poor countries left in the world in his annual letter. 
According to Gates in another decade no country will be as poor as any of the 35 countries that the World Bank classifies as low-income today even after adjusting for inflation. 
He said that a few countries will be held back by war, politics (North Korea) or geography (landlocked nations in central Africa). But most of them will live in countries that are self-sufficient. 
Gates said, "Every nation in South America, Asia, and Central America (with the possible exception of Haiti), and most in coastal Africa will have joined the ranks of today's middle-income nations. More than 70% of countries will have a higher per-person income than China does today. Nearly 90% will have a higher income than India does today. It will be a remarkable achievement". 
He added, "When I was born most countries in the world were poor. In the next two decades desperately poor countries will become the exception rather than the rule. Billions of people will have been lifted out of extreme poverty. Poor countries are not doomed to stay poor. Some of the developing nations have already developed. Many more are on their way. By 2035 almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer. Countries will learn from their most productive neighbors and benefit from innovations like new vaccines, better seeds and the digital revolution". 
According to Gates, it is a myth that poor countries are doomed to stay poor. He said, "They haven't stayed poor. Many of the countries we used to call poor now have thriving economies. And the percentage of very poor people has dropped by more than half since 1990. That still leaves more than one billion people in extreme poverty so it's not time to celebrate. But it is fair to say that the world has changed so much that the terms 'developing countries' and 'developed countries' have outlived their usefulness."
source The Times