India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity was 11 times more than that of Bangladesh in 2019, government sources said on Wednesday as they played down IMF projections of India slipping below the neighbouring nation on per capita GDP this year.

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Earlier in the day in a tweet, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the government over IMF growth projections showing Bangladesh closing in on India in terms of per capita GDP this year and described it as a ”solid achievement” of six years of BJP’s ”hate-filled cultural nationalism”.

The government sources, on their part, emphasised 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 percent. In 2019, India’s GDP in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms was 11 times more than that of Bangladesh while the population was eight times more.

In PPP terms, India’s per capita GDP in 2020 is estimated by IMF at USD 6,284 as compared to USD 5,139 for Bangladesh, according to the sources.

Under UPA 2, the sources said that it had increased from Rs 65,394 in 2009-10 to Rs 78,348 in 2013-14 which is an increase of 19.8 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated India’s GDP to grow at 8.8 percent in 2021, twice that of Bangladesh at 4.4 percent, they added.

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 percent 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 the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, India is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 percent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest-growing emerging economy, surpassing China’s projected growth rate of 8.2 percent, 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 percent this year and bounce back to 5.2 percent in 2021.

America’s economy is projected to contract by 5.8 percent in 2020 and grow by 3.9 percent the next year, IMF said. China is the only country, among the major economies, to show a positive growth rate of 1.9 percent in 2020, it said.

IMF in its report said that revisions to the forecast are particularly large for India, where GDP contracted much more severely than expected in the second quarter. ”As a result, the economy is projected to contract by 10.3 percent in 2020, before rebounding by 8.8 percent in 2021,” it said.

In 2019, India’s growth rate was 4.2 percent. Last week, the World Bank said India’s GDP this fiscal is expected to contract by 9.6 percent.

”India’s GDP is expected to contract 9.6 percent 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 percent in the current financial year.

First Published:Oct 15, 2020 11:20 AM IST