UNCTAD, which held its 12th session here last week, said per capita income of developed countries in 2006 was 18 times higher than that of developing countries. In 1980, it was 23 times higher.
UNCTAD said the recent progress mainly reflected rapid economic advances in east and south asia.
The UNCTAD statement received by the GNA on Monday said that in the last five years, the annual economic growth in African countries was between five and six per cent.
It said the difference in average income between Europe and Africa continued to increase. Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2006 was $1,160 with $914 in sub-Saharan Africa, while it was $31,622 in Europe for the same year.
The world GDP grew by an average rate of three per cent a year between 2000 and 2006 with GDP per capita in developing countries increasing by almost 30 per cent between 2003 and 2007, compared with 10 per cent for the Group of Seven most highly industrialised nations.
South-south trade had also increased during the past decade from $580 billion in 1995 to over $2 trillion in 2006. In 2006, south-south trade accounted for 17 per cent of the world trade and 46 per cent of developing countries' total trade.