The article analyzes long-term and modern processes of global economic growth based on statistical and economic indicators calculated by the author and a number of models. Its most important components, proportions and factors in economically advanced and developing countries are investigated. It is being clarified whether Western countries and Japan show signs of what some scientists call "secular stagnation", or whether they are growing, but in a different dimension. The most important components of the Asian economic breakthrough, its economic and social consequences and contradictions are considered. The article provides an assessment of the opportunities and main determinants of the implementation of the catch-up and breakthrough development strategy by the countries of the East and South. Keywords: developed and developing countries, global growth, modeling, Asian economic breakthrough, catch-up and breakthrough development, inequality, debt, instability, reforms. The picture of the world in the light of dramatic events in a number of its regions has become significantly more complicated. According to my calculations, the global political and geopolitical stability index declined by almost 1/10 in 2000-2015, including 1/5 in the developed countries, almost 1/3 in Europe and Central Asia, and more than 1/2 on average in the Middle East and North Africa (calculated by: [The World Bank. World Governance Indicators, 2015; The World Bank. Global Economic Prospects, 2015, p. 9]). Despite the intensification of trade, economic, informational and cultural contacts, the world turned out to be far from the "end of history" and the triumph of the liberal order (according to Fukuyama). Zakariya). In it, the (geo)political and economic rivalry of countries has intensified, and there are signs of what S. Huntington called a clash of civilizations. Various threats are growing, and the number of challenges is multiplying. They are, of course, in no small measure (according to ... Read more