Regional disparity of per capita income in India higher than BRICS peers: IMF

India fared poorly in terms of regional disparity of per capita income among the BRICS nations, as per a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In India, the real per capita income in the richest province is 10 times higher than the poorest province, reports Financial Express.

In comparison, the income disparity in other BRICS countries is seven times in Russia, around 4 times in Brazil and China and two-and-a-half times in South Africa. This indicates that India has witnessed uneven growth across the states and region, resulting in income disparity.

Per capita income in the richest provinces of some BRICS economies increased more than half of that in the US (and particularly in Moscow, Russia and Sao Paulo, Brazil), while the poorest provinces failed to keep pace with them, the IMF said.

In India, per capita income in the poor agrarian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh stands at Rs 36,143 and Rs 40,373 respectively for 2014-15 compared to per capita income of industrially advanced states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which comes at Rs 129,235 and Rs 128,366. The disparity increases significantly when it is compared with city states like Delhi which has per capita income of Rs 240,849 for FY14-15.

The IMF report notes that the national averages tend to overestimate the real income in rich cities and underestimate it in poor provinces, to the extent that there is substantial variation in prices across provinces at times.

BRICS nations experienced a period of strong income growth due to favourable external tailwinds in the early 2000s and as some of them escaped from the crises.

IMF said that the dollar adjusted purchasing-power parity of these nations’ average income narrowed the gap with the US between 2002 and 2014. During this period per capita income share of China and Russia as of those in the US rose 13 percentage points and 26 percentage points. The report indicates that regional disparity still persists in these countries.