World Bank Retains India's Classification as Lower-Middle Income Group Economy for 2020-21

India has retained its position as lower-middle income group economy in the new World Bank Country Classifications by Income Level 2020-2021.
India became a lower-middle-income nation from low-income in the fiscal year 2009.

World Bank Country Classifications by Income Level

Every year, the World Bank classifies the world’s economies in four income groups, which includes low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries.
These classifications are updated annually on July 1 based on the country’s GNI per capita in current USD (using the Atlas method exchange rates) of the previous year.
A country’s GNI per capita, changes with economic growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population, revisions to national accounts methods and data.

Classification for 2020-21

For the fiscal year 2020-21, a total of 218 countries have been listed, which includes all World Bank member countries (189), and other economies with populations of more than 30,000.
Out of these total 218 economies, 83 are in the high-income group, 56 in the upper-middle group, 50 in the lower-middle income group and 29 in the low-income group.
For FY21, GNI per capita data for 2019 has been used.

What is GNI per capita

The GNI (Gross National Income) per capita is the dollar value of a country’s total income in a year, divided by its population. GNI includes the amount of money earned by the citizens of the country and businesses, nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the income it receives from the overseas sources.

Classification Criteria in the Four Groups based on GNI per capita

The GNI per capita range to classify countries in the four different groups are given below:
- Low income – GNI per capita < $1,036 (means GNI per capita, of this group is $1,035 or less in 2019)
- Lower-middle income – GNI per capita between $1,036 – $4,045
- Upper-middle income – GNI per capita between $4,046 – $12,535
- High income – GNI per capita > $12,535