Declining wages, less than one-quarter as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s.

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Analysts say one of the many causes of the lack of progress on curbing crime is widespread poverty and income inequality.

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But the Bank added that poverty reduction was being held back by income inequality and a reliance on mineral and mining exports in some African countries.

BBC: World Bank: Africa's economic growth to outpace average

Once one of the most egalitarian of countries, Japan is now above average among rich nations in its income inequality and, at 14%, has the highest rate of children raised in poverty.

ECONOMIST: Social change in Japan

Latin America in particular now has an income inequality between the rich and the poor that is actually narrowing as social programs pull people out of poverty and into the middle class.

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In its report entitled The Cost Of Inequality: How Wealth And Income Extremes Hurt Us All, the UK charity said that efforts to tackle poverty were being hindered by an "explosion in extreme wealth".

BBC: Oxfam seeks 'new deal' on inequality from world leaders