The rest of the paper is organized in five sections. Section 2 briefly describes
poverty trends in the LDCs. Section 3 argues that these trends are the result of
economic stagnation, by looking at growth trends in the LDCs and the nature of the
long-term relationship between economic growth and extreme ($1-a-day) poverty in
lower income countries. Section 4 sets out elements of the international poverty trap,
which is particularly relevant for commodity-exporting LDCs, and section 5 identifies
ways in which the current form of globalization is likely to be tightening rather than
loosening the international poverty trap. The conclusion draws out some general
policy implications, though the treatment is brief as doing justice to the issues would
deserve another paper.