Feb. 1 – India’s average income for the fiscal year 2010-2011 rose 16.9 percent to reach a US$1,000 average for the first time, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office this week.
“Real GDP growth is outstripping population growth so per capita income has been on the rise,” stated D.K. Joshi, chief economist at Crisil.
According to the World Bank, India is a lower middle-class income country. Analysts are shrugging off the milestone suggesting that India still has a long way to go. The country remains beset with poverty although, like China did in the 1980s and 90s, significant inroads are being made in lifting millions up from below the poverty line.
Many of India’s poor live in rural areas, far removed from the oftentimes ostentatious wealth and glamor of the major cities. However, like China before it, rises in per capita incomes, if sustained, are expected to have a transforming effect on the Indian economy for the next 20 years.
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