In his opening speech to the G20 meeting in Hangzhou at the beginning of September, the Chinese president Xi Jinping came up with an interesting number: 0.7.

Referring to the standard measure of inequality, Mr Xi said: “The world’s Gini coefficient has reached around 0.7, higher than the recognised alarm level which stands at 0.6. This is something we must pay great attention to.”

In his speech, Mr Xi emphasised China’s massive contribution to the reduction in global poverty. Had he wanted also to highlight its role in reducing global inequality, he could have pointed out that, up to 2000, it was only China’s high growth rates that kept global inequality from rising. Since then global inequality has been in decline for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, thanks to continued high growth in Asia. And all of this has happened despite increasing inequality within China.