Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 14 October, took a jibe at the Central government over the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) growth projection, showing Bangladesh closing in on India in terms of per capita GDP in the fiscal year 2020-21.
Gandhi said, on Twitter, that it was a “solid achievement of six years of BJPs hate-filled cultural nationalism.”
The Congress leader also shared a graph, citing IMF:
Government Sources Hit Back
Government sources were quick to hit back at Rahul Gandhi, saying that 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 purchasing power parity terms, India’s per capita GDP in 2020 is estimated by IMF at $6284 compared to $5139 for Bangladesh," the government sources were quoted as saying by news agency ANI on the Congress leader's tweet.
"IMF has estimated India’s GDP to grow at 8.8 percent in 2021, twice that of Bangladesh at 4.4 percent. Under the present government, per capita GDP increased from Rs 83,091 in 2014-15 to Rs 1,08,620 in 2019-20 – increase of 30.7 percent. Under UPA-II, it had increased by 19.8 percent," they added.
India’s economic growth forecast is projected to contract by 10.3 percent in 2020-21, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday, 13 October. The country is also set to drop below Bangladesh in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product, NDTV reported, quoting the IMF report.
This will be sharper than the previous estimate of a 4.5 percent decline induced by the coronavirus impact. The emerging markets have been impacted majorly in the wake of the pandemic.
The World Bank expects the economy to decline by 9.6 percent, while RBI forecast says GDP would plunge 9.5 percent in 2020-21.
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