According to the Oxfam report: “Inequality is at an all-time high and continues to rise.”

On 21 October, Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) published a joint report, Committed to Reducing the Inequality Index, detailing record inequality and rising austerity measures around the world. A total of 90 percent of the 164 countries studied had policies “that are likely to increase economic inequality.”

The report looked at three “pillars” to assess the level of inequality in 164 countries: spending on public services (on education, health and social protection); progressive taxation; and labor rights and wages. Since the last report in 2022, 84 percent of countries have cut spending on education, health and/or social protection. Tax policies have regressed in 81 percent of countries, and “labor rights, minimum wages, vulnerable employment and/or labor income inequality have worsened in 90 percent of countries.”

Oxfam and DFI began publishing these reports in 2017. The 2024 report represents the first time a majority of countries have been shown to regress in all three areas. The report notes that due to a global decline in social policies, “inequality is at an all-time high and continues to rise.”

Of the 164 countries studied, 112 did not meet the minimum recommendation of spending 15-20 percent of the national budget on education. Since 2022, average spending on education has dropped from 14 percent to 13.7 percent.

Health spending has remained at 11 percent since the 2022 report was published, with spending not returning to pre-pandemic levels in the poorest countries. The 2022 report found that half of low- and lower-middle-income countries cut health care spending during the first two years of the pandemic. Social protection spending also remained at 18.3 percent between 2022 and 2024.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, two pillars of the global capitalist system, have played a particularly pernicious role in cutting social spending and rising inequality over the past two years. As of 2022, 94 percent of countries with World Bank programs and 95 percent of countries with IMF loans are cutting their education, health, and/or social protection budgets.

The report notes that “the IMF continues to actively promote tightening austerity measures around the world, most notably in the spending cuts that are being recommended in the vast majority of countries to reduce post-pandemic debt and deficit levels.” As Oxfam’s April 2023 report notes:

“Austerity kills. This slows down life and destroys potential. This harms the economy, setting society’s progress back many years. This leads to increased inequality and poverty.”

Eight of the ten worst performing countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. All countries in this region have programs from the World Bank and the IMF.

The two countries that have seen the largest declines in spending on public services since 2022 are Argentina and Ukraine. In Argentina, fascist President Javier Miley decided to cut spending on health care by 76 percent and on education by 60 percent, while repealing laws protecting workers. Miley also pushed for retrograde changes to the country’s wealth tax, lowering tax rates and raising the tax-free minimum threshold for wealth.