The World Bank (WB) in a posting on its website says that Bangladesh has become a lower-middle income country. The WB's latest estimates of Gross National Income per capita (GNI) continue to show improved economic performance in many low-income countries, with Bangladesh, Kenya, Myanmar, and Tajikistan now becoming lower-middle income countries, joining those with annual incomes of $1,046 to $4,125. Mongolia and Paraguay move from lower middle-income status to upper middle-income, a group with yearly income levels of $4,126 to $12,735. Beset by civil war and a national oil industry at a standstill, South Sudan has fallen out of the lower middle-income classification and back into low-income status, where average per capita incomes are $1,045 or less. The revised income classification of the world’s economies, posted on WB website on Wednesday (July 1) shows that Malawi has the world’s lowest reported GNI per capita at $250. The new World Bank figures show Monaco has the highest GNI per capita, at more than $100,000. The global lender revises the income classification of the world’s economies every year on July 1 through calculation using the World Bank Atlas method. The new GNI per capita rankings show that Maldives and Mongolia were the highest movers in the rankings – up 13 and 8 places, respectively. Oman and Timor-Leste fell most from their 2013 ranking – down 15 places for both.
People living in low-income countries continue to fall behind those in the upper per capita GNI brackets, while they earn and consume significantly less than much of the world’s population.
African country Malawi has the world’s lowest reported GNI per capita at $250, while tiny European principality Monaco has the highest, at more than $100,000 – more than 400 times more per person on average than Malawi. In 1990, Malawi’s GNI per capita was $180 – in 24 years its average per-capita income has increased by just $70. In the same period Norway, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, has seen its per capita income increase from $26,010 to $103,050, an increase of $77,040.
Some countries have also made remarkable progress. In 1990, Vietnam was a low-income country at the bottom of the rankings, with a GNI per capita of $130. Today, the country is reliably lower-middle income, with a GNI per capita of $1,890 – moving up more than 50 places in the rankings over the last 25 years. The new WB figures also show that Argentina, Hungary, Seychelles, and Venezuela have now moved from the upper middle income category to high income, with average per capita income levels now of $12,736 or more. Gross National Income (GNI) is a broad-based measure of income generated by a nation’s residents from international and domestic activity. GNI per capita measures the average amount of resources available to persons residing in a given economy, and reflects the average economic well-being of a population.
