BD ranks 34 in WEF emerging economies Index

Bangladesh has been placed 34 at the emerging economies in World Economic Forum (WEF) Inclusive Development Index-2018.

India ranked at the 62nd place among emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index (IDI), much below China's 26th position and Pakistan's 47th.

Norway remains the world's most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again tops the list of emerging economies, according to WEF.

The 2018 index, which measures progress of 103 economies on three individual pillars -- growth and development; inclusion; and inter-generational equity -- has been divided into two parts.

The first part covers 29 advanced economies and the second 74 emerging economies. Bangladesh was placed at the 74 emerging economies.

Besides, Bangladesh was placed at 64 at the comparative performance: IDI verses GDP.  

The index takes into account the "living standards, environmental sustainability and protection of future generations from further indebtedness", the WEF said.

WEF urged world leaders to urgently move to a new model of inclusive growth and development saying reliance on GDP as a measure of economic achievement is fuelling short-termism and inequality, reports Fast Post.

The index has also classified the countries into five sub-categories in terms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growth score -- receding, slowly receding, stable, slowly advancing and advancing.

Among advanced economies, Norway is followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark in the top five.

Small European economies dominate the top of the index, with Australia (9) the only non-European economy in the top 10. Of the G7 economies, Germany (12) ranks the highest. It is followed by Canada (17), France (18), the UK (21), the US (23), Japan (24) and Italy (27).

 The top-five most inclusive emerging economies are Lithuania, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Latvia and Poland.

 Although China ranks first among emerging economies in GDP per capita growth (6.8 per cent) and labour productivity growth (6.7 per cent) since 2012, its overall score is brought down by lacklustre performance on inclusion, the WEF said.

 Bangladesh labour productivity growth 4.3 per cent and GDP per capita growth 5.2 per cent.