High income economy

A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a gross national income per capita of $12,276 USD or more in 2010.¹ While the term "high income" is often used interchangeably with "First World" and "developed country", the technical definitions of these terms differ. The term "first world" commonly refers to those prosperous countries that aligned themselves with the U.S. and NATO during the cold war. Several institutions, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or International Monetary Fund (IMF), take factors other than high per capita income into account when classifying countries as "developed" or "advanced economies". According to the United Nations, for example, some high income countries may also be developing countries. The GCC (Persian Gulf States) countries, for example, are classified as developing high income countries. Thus, a high income country may be classified as either developed or developing.² Although the Holy See is a sovereign state, it is not classified by the World Bank under this definition.