 
 
May / June 2001 India world's fourth
largest economy
India is now the world's fourth largest economy after us, China and Japan in purchasing power pariy (PPP) measured in American prices, according to the latest world development indicators. India's PPP gross national income in 1999 was $ 2.23 trillion againt $8.88 trillion of the United States, $4.45 trillion of China and $3.19 trillion of Japan, the indicators issued by the World Bank said. India's per capita in PPP increased from $ 2.06 in 1998 to $2.23 in 1999, and PPP gross national income from $ 2.03 trillion in 1999, the 396-page publication said. Other countries in the trillion Dollar league in PPP in 1999 were. Germany ($1.93 trillion). France ($1.35 trillion ), United Kingdom ($1.32 trillion), Italy ($1.27 trillion), Brazil ($1.15 trillion) and the Russian Federation ($1.02 trillion). Pakistani Indian businessmen eye lucrative bilateral trade
Business leaders of hostile neighbours India and Pakistan recently dicussed ways to overcome obstacles to bilateral trade that they said had the potential of reaching up to $ 10 billion a year. Chirayu R Amin, newly appointed Indo-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) president, told a news conference that if the barriers were removed, trade between the arch rivals had the potential to reach between $5 billion and $ 10 billion. The (Indian) government is definitely interested that trade should go up. That's why we are here ... and am quite sure that the Pakistani government also thinks in the same way' Amin said. According to Amin, official trade between India and Pakistan currently stands at $200 million annually but the unofficial figure was at least five times that amount. Bangladesh opens country's largest gas power plant
The country's largest private power plant, built and owned by U.S.-based AES Corp,, has gone into operation boosting national electricity generation by 235 Megawatts a day. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently switched on the $180 million plant at Haripur, a riverside village near capital Dhaka. AES Corporation is one of the few foreign companies which have come to Bangladesh since 1996, when the government ended its monopoly in electricity generation. The gas-fired plant will eventually produce 360 -megawatts a day after a second unit goes into operation late this year, according to Scott Kicker, the company's managing director in Bangladesh. The electricity will be bought by the state-run Power Development Board. IMF grants US $ 253m credit to Sri Lanka
The International Monetary Fund has approved a 14-month stand-by credit of 253 million dollars for cash strapped Sri Lanka to meet its urgent commitment s, officials said recently. The government of Sri Lanka will be able to draw 131 million dollars immediately, central bank officials said in Colombo, quoting a decision by the IMF's executive board in Washington, The loan is given at time Sri Lanka's official foreign reserves hit an alarming low of 950 million dollars at the end of January, forcing the several fiscal and monetary measures to curtail imports. The program aims to restore macroeconomic stability through an improvement in the financial position of the public sector and the rebuilding of official reserves, supported by a flexible exchange rate, the IMF quoted its deputy managing director Shigemitsu Sugisaki. 
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