Seventeen years from now, half the global stock of capital, totaling $158 trillion (in 2010 dollars), will reside in the developing world, compared to less than one third today, with countries in East Asia and Latin America accounting for the largest shares of this stock, says the latest edition of the World Bank's Global Development Horizons (GDH) report, which explores patterns of investment, saving and capital flows as they are likely to evolve over the next two decades.

Developing countries' share in global investment is projected to triple by 2030 to three fifths, from one fifth in 2000, says the report, titled Capital for the Future: Saving and Investment in an Interdependent World. With world population set to rise from 7 billion in 2010 to 8.5 billion 2030 and rapid aging in the advanced countries, demographic changes will profoundly influence these structural shifts.

"GDH is one of the finest efforts at peering into the distant future. It does this by marshaling an amazing amount of statistical information," said Kaushik Basu, the World Bank's Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. "We know from the experience of countries as diverse as South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa the pivotal role investment plays in driving long-term growth. In less than a generation, global investment will be dominated by the developing countries. And among the developing countries, China and India are expected to be the largest investors, with the two countries together accounting for 38 percent of the global gross investment in 2030. All this will change the landscape of the global economy, and GDH analyzes how."