Bangladesh's per capita GDP to be $2,138 in 2021: IMF

Bangladesh's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) will be US$2,138.794 in 2021, higher than neighbouring India, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The per capita GDP of India will be US$2,116.444 in 2021.

The projection came from the World Economic Outlook 2021 of the IMF titled "Recovery During a Pandemic Health Concerns, Supply Disruptions and Price Pressures", released on Tuesday.

The Washington-based multilateral lender also projected that Bangladesh's

economic growth will be 6.5 per cent in the current year. The IMF trimmed the projection for the global growth to 5.9 per cent for this year in contrast to its previous estimation of 6.0 per cent. It, however, kept unchanged the global growth at 4.9 per cent for the next year.

"The global recovery continues, but the momentum has weakened, hobbled by the pandemic," said the report.

Pandemic outbreaks in critical links of global supply chains have resulted in longer-than-expected supply disruptions and further feeding inflation in many countries, said IMF.

"Overall, risks to economic prospects have increased and policy trade-offs have become more complex."

Partially offsetting those changes, projections for some commodity exporters have been upgraded on the back of rising commodity prices.

If higher inflation becomes entrenched, it could force central banks to respond aggressively and higher interest rates would slow the recovery, the IMF cautioned.