Per Capita GDP increased by over 30%, Overall Size 11 Times that of Bangladesh in PPP terms: Officials on Criticism Over IMF report

Facing attacks from Opposition over the projection of International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Bangladesh is set to overtake India in terms of per capital income, the government said that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 11 times that of Bangladesh in 2019.

Playing down IMF projections, people in the know said that under the Modi government, the per capita GDP has increased from Rs 83,091 in 2014-15 to Rs 1,08,620 in 2019-20, representing an increase of 30.7 per cent, as reported by news agency PTI.

The GDP had increased by 19.8 per cent during the second term of Congress-led UPA, the people cited above added.

In 2019, India’s GDP in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms was 11 times more than that of Bangladesh while population was eight times more, PTI quoted sources as saying. In PPP terms, India’s per capita GDP in 2020 is estimated by IMF at US $6,284 as compared to US $5,139 for Bangladesh, according to the sources.

Sharing the IMF projections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre on Wednesday saying it’s their achievement in six years

“Solid achievement of 6 years of BJP’s hate-filled cultural nationalism: Bangladesh set to overtake India,” Gandhi tweeted.

Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said the country’s economy is in “tatters”, and described IMF’s projections as “our colossal downfall” in pursuit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “5 trillion dream”.

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 the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, India 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.