Govt sources hits back at Rahul Gandhi over 'Bangladesh set to overtake India' remark

Govt sources hits back at Rahul Gandhi over 'Bangladesh set to overtake India' remark

In response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Centre over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast for India's GDP, government sources have said that India's GDP is 11 times more than that of Bangladesh.

In 2019, India's GDP in purchasing parity terms was 11 times more of Bangladesh while the population was 8 times more. In purchasing power parity terms, India's per capita GDP in 2020 is estimated by IMF at $6284 compared to $5139 for Bangladesh, government sources quoted by news agency ANI said.

IMF has estimated India's GDP to grow at 8.8 per cent in 2021, twice that of Bangladesh at 4.4 per cent. Under the present government, Per Capita GDP increased from Rs 83,091 in 2014-15 to Rs 1,08,620 in 2019-20 - an increase of 30.7 per cent. Under UPA 2, it had increased by 19.8 per cent, the sources said.

On Wednesday, Gandhi had said that Bangladesh is set to overtake India in terms of per capita GDP due to BJP's hate-filled cultural nationalism.

Gandhi, through his tweet, attributed the dip in India's numbers to BJP's political agenda which he said has been carried out in the six years of its rule at the Centre.

"Solid achievement of six years of BJP's hate-filled cultural nationalism: Bangladesh set to overtake India," Gandhi said.

The IMF graph projects that the per capita GDP of both India and Bangladesh would be at USD 1,888 for 2020. It also said that the Indian economy is projected to contract by 10.3 per cent this year due to impact of COVID-19 but will rebound with 8.8 per cent growth the following year and regain its position as the fastest-growing emerging economy.

The global economic growth is estimated to dip by 4.4 per cent in 2020 and bounce back to 5.2 per cent growth in 2021, the IMF said in its latest 'World Economic Outlook' report, released ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

"All emerging market and developing economy regions are expected to contract this year, including notably emerging Asia, where large economies, such as India and Indonesia, continue to try to bring the pandemic under control," the IMF said in its report.

According to the IMF's projection, India is projected to regain its position as the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economies in 2021, with 8.8 per cent economic growth, followed by China at 8.2 per cent.