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India’s per capita income rose 9.7 per cent to $1,631 in 2014 from $1,487 in the previous year, but it remained a low-middle income economy, according to the World Bank’s latest estimates on per capita income and GDP. The growth rate in per capita income in 2014 was higher than the 0.4 per cent rise in 2013 over $1,481 in 2012.
Also, it was for the first time in three years that the per capita income increased beyond the level of 2011, when it was $1,503. India’s per capita income has been rising in rupee terms, but the depreciation of the country’s currency against the dollar made it look smaller than that in 2012 and 2013. Despite the depreciation, the country’s per capita income rose significantly in 2014 compared with 2013.
India was too away from crossing the low-middle income trap as the per capita income has to cross $4,125 a year to achieve that slot. The lower range of this category is $1,046 a year, which the country crossed in 2009.
India was 169th in terms of per capita income in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the country's per capita income grew 7.65 per cent to $5,833 in 2014, against $5,418 in the previous year. In 2013, the growth rate was 7.15 per cent over $5,056 in the previous year. India ranked 147th in terms of per capita income in PPP terms.
The country's GDP crossed $2 trillion in 2014, compared to $1.86 trillion in the previous year. India crossed the $2-trillion mark in seven years after crossing $1 trillion in 60 years.
In terms of official dollar-rupee rate, the economy was ninth in terms of GDP size.
However, in terms of PPP, India's GDP stood at $6.78 trillion in 2014, maintaining its third slot in the world, after China and the US.
It took the economy three years to cross the $4-trillion mark after it surpassed $3 trillion in 2007 and two more years to cross the $5-trillion mark.
