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Former RBI Governor C Rangarajan has noted that the India achieving $5 trillion economy is a short term aspirational goal, and said even after that India will still be known as middle income country with per capita income $3472. He further said in order to reach the level of an upper middle-income country, it will take another two years and to be classified as a developed country, the per capita income will have to be at a minimum of $13,205 and that will take more than two decades of strong growth of between 8 to 9 per cent to achieve it.

He said at aggregate output level, India is the fifth largest economy in the world now. That by itself is an impressive achievement. But in terms of per capita income, India's rank according to IMF is 142 out of 197 countries. The immediate focus of policymakers must be to raise the growth rate of the economy. Achievement of a $5 trillion economy is a good short term aspirational goal.

He also noted that this will take a minimum five years of sustained growth of 9 per cent. Even then, at the end of it, India's per capita income will be only $3472 and we will still be classified as a lower middle income country.