After International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections showed Bangladesh outstripping India in per capita GDP this year, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the Modi government. "Solid achievement of 6 years of BJP's hate-filled cultural nationalism: Bangladesh set to overtake India," Gandhi said in a tweet.
Solid achievement of 6 years of BJP’s hate-filled cultural nationalism:
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 14, 2020
Bangladesh set to overtake India.
👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/waOdsLNUVg
The IMF said on Tuesday that the Indian economy, severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year. According to the projections, Bangladesh's per capita GDP could rise to $1,888, outstripping India's $1877. 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.
The IMF said that, in India, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted much more severely than expected in the second quarter. "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 situation is much worse in India than we have ever seen before," Hans Timmer, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia, told reporters during a conference call last week. "It is an exceptional situation in India. A very dire outlook," he said. There was a 25 per cent decline in GDP in the second quarter of the year, which is the first quarter of the current fiscal year in India.
Released ahead of the annual meetings of the 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, the 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.
-Inputs from agencies
