In Russia and other post-Communist states, neoliberal reforms based on the Washington Consensus resulted in a surge in excess mortality and decreasing life expectancy, along with rising economic inequality and poverty. The Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries. Some countries that used shock therapy (e.g., Poland, Czech Republic) did better than those that did not. The average post-communist country had returned to 1989 levels of per-capita GDP by 2005, although some are still far behind that. To further cloud understanding, China made its highly successful transition in a gradualist fashion. According to William Easterly, successful market economies rest on a framework of law, regulation, and established practice that cannot be instantaneously created in a society that was formerly authoritarian, heavily centralised, and subject to state ownership of assets. German historian Philipp Ther asserted that the imposition of shock therapy had little to do with future economic growth.