India to become third poorest country in South Asia

NIRMAL YESODA

The coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown has drastically affected India in all sectors, and now, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed that Bangladesh will overtake India’s per-capita GDP in 2020.

According to the IMF, Bangladesh will most likely pip India, as its per-capita GDP is likely to expand by four percent, in 2020 to $1888. On the other hand, India’s GDP is expected to decline by 10.5 percent to $1877.

The new figure indicates that India is going to become the third poorest country in South Asia, with only Pakistan and Nepal reporting lower per-capita GDP than the world’s largest democracy. It should be noted that Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka have a higher GDP than India.

However, the IMF has forecast a sharp climb in India’s per-capita GDP in 2021, and the country is expected to outpace Bangladesh in the next year. IMF believes that the per-capita GDP in India will be $2030 next year, while Bangladesh will have only $1990.

When it comes to the last five years, Bangladesh has witnessed a per-capita GDP growth of 9.1 percent, while India’s GDP growth in the given period is just 3.2 percent.