Bangladesh overtaking India in per capita GDP in 2020 sparks furore

The social media is buzzing after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted that Bangladesh will overtake India in per capita GDP for 2020.

As India's growth falls, amongst the most in the world, India is on track to fall below Bangladesh in terms of the per capita GDP. India will grow smartly next year, as per IMF.

As per the World Economic Outlook report of IMF released on Tuesday, India's per capita GDP is set to plunge by 10.5 percent to $1,877 this fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. This will make India the third poorest country in South Asia with only Pakistan and Nepal behind.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives now have more per capita GDP than India.

Bangladesh's per capita GDP in dollar terms is expected to grow 4 per cent in 2020 to $1,888, overtaking India.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the BJP government on this count. "Solid achievement of 6 years of BJP's hate-filled cultural nationalism: Bangladesh set to overtake India".

Stock market expert and Director Enam Holdings, Manish Chokhani tweeted, "Today's special. Both our neighbours marching ahead. We wish them well and hope our achievements meet our own aspirations!".

Chokhani added a clipping of Bangladesh overtaking India and China's booming economy and stock markets. The tweet was tagged to business and stock market leaders Samir Arora, Nilesh Shah, Anand Mahindra, Harsh Goenka and Harsh Mariwala.

Till five years back, India's per capita GDP was 40 per cent higher than Bangladesh.  In the last five years, Bangladesh has grown three times the rate of India, at 9.1 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent for India, a much larger economy.