Government sources hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘Bangladesh set to overtake’ jibe, saying the nation’s per capita GDP in 2019 was actually 11 times higher than that of Bangladesh. Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a potshot at the BJPled government over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comparing India’s per capita GDP with that of Bangladesh.
Sharing a projection by the IMF-World Economic Outlook, Rahul Gandhi said that Bangladesh’s per capita GDP could overtake India’s in the coming years. The IMF graph projects that the per capita GDP of both India and Bangladesh would be at $1,888 for 2020.
Government sources claimed the gap in per capita GDP PPP (purchasing power parity) — which is a way to measure per capita GDP by accounting for relative differences between nations — was achieved despite India having a population that is eight times more. India’s per capita GDP (PPP) in 2020, sources added, was estimated by the IMF at $6,284. By comparison, per capita GDP (PPP) of Bangladesh for 2020, they said, was estimated at $5,139. Sources also pointed out that in the same IMF report India’s GDP was estimated to grow at 8.8 per cent in 2021, compared to Bangladesh’s 4.4 per cent.
According to IMF, India is set to drop below Bangladesh in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the economy is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year. IMF’s forecast for India — a huge downward revision from its previous prediction in June — is also the biggest contraction projected among major emerging markets amid Covid-19.
India, however, is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 per cent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest growing emerging economy, surpassing China’s projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, the IMF said in its latest ‘World Economic Outlook’ report.
Released ahead of the annual meetings of IMF and the World Bank, the report said global growth would contract by 4.4 per cent this year and bounce back to 5.2 per cent in 2021.
America’s economy is projected to contract by 5.8 per cent in 2020 and grow by 3.9 per cent the next year, IMF said. China is the only country, among the major economies, to show a positive growth rate of 1.9 per cent in 2020, it said.
In 2019, India’s growth rate was 4.2 per cent. Last week, the World Bank said India’s GDP this fiscal is expected to contract by 9.6 per cent. “India’s GDP is expected to contract 9.6 per cent in the fiscal year that started in March,” the World Bank said in its latest issue of the South Asia Economic Focus report.
The Reserve Bank of India has projected the country’s economy to contract by 9.5 per cent in the current financial year.
With agency inputs
