The South Asian Growth Mosaic: GDP and Per Capita Growth Patterns Across Five Nations

Abstract

This article compares annual GDP growth and GDP per capita growth in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan over 1961–2025, using data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. The analysis separates the pre-liberalisation period (1961–1990) from the post-1991 period, when India’s economic reforms coincided with wider changes in regional integration, trade, and structural transformation. Pakistan recorded the strongest average GDP growth in the earlier period, while India and Bangladesh emerged as the more sustained performers after 1991. Per capita growth provides an additional measure of how aggregate expansion translated into changes in average income. Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan exhibited more uneven trajectories, and Pakistan’s relative performance weakened over time. The comparison shows that long-run growth depended not only on periods of rapid expansion but also on the ability of countries to withstand political, financial, and external shocks. It highlights the importance of reform timing, export capacity, macroeconomic stability, demographic dynamics, and institutional resilience in shaping divergent development paths across South Asia.