Benin Republic joins Nigeria, Ghana in lower middle income economies—WB

World Bank has said that Nigeria and Ghana have remained in the lower middle income countries classification while Benin, Tanzania and Algeria have joined the Lower middle Income economies group ($1,036 to $4,045.) Meanwhile South Africa, Gabon, Namibia, Libya, Botswana are classified in the upper middle income economies with $4,046 to $12,535 in the 2020/2021 classification. The World Bank said it assigns the world’s economies to four income groups—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. The classifications are updated each year on July 1 and are based on GNI per capita in current USD 

Group	July 1, 2020 (new)	July 1, 2019 (old)
Low income	< 1,036	< 1,026
Lower-middle income	1,036 – 4,045	1,026 – 3,995
Upper-middle income	4,046 – 12,535	3,996 – 12,375
High income	> 12,535	> 12,375

Changes in classifications

The table below lists the ten economies that are moving to a different category. It is important to emphasize that the World Bank’s income classifications use the GNI of the previous year (2019 in this case). Thus, the GNI numbers that are used for this year’s classification do not yet reflect the impact of COVID-19.

Economies moving to a higher category 

Economy	New group	Old group	GNI/Capita/$ (2019) as of July 1, 2020	GNI/Capita/$ (2018) as of July 1, 2019
Benin	Lower-middle income	Low income	1,250	870
Indonesia	Upper-middle income	Lower-middle income	4,050	3,840
Mauritius	High income	Upper-middle income	12,740	12,050
Nauru	High income	Upper-middle income	14,230	11,240
Nepal	Lower-middle income	Low income	1,090	960
Romania	High income	Upper-middle income	12,630	11,290
Tanzania	Lower-middle income	Low income	1,080	1,020

Economies moving to a lower category 

Economy	New group	Old group	GNI/Capita/$ (2019) as of July 1, 2020	GNI/Capita/$ (2018) as of July 1, 2019
Algeria	Lower-middle income	Upper-middle income	3,970	4,060
Sri Lanka	Lower-middle income	Upper-middle income	4,020	4,060
Sudan	Low income	Lower-middle income	590	1,560

National accounts revisions have played a significant role in the upward revision for Benin, Nauru and Tanzania. For Sudan, the GNI series for 2009-2018 has been revised as a result of revisions to the exchange rates. The 2018 GNI per capita figure has been revised down to $840 from the previously published figure of $1,560 (which is listed in the table). Algeria, Indonesia, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Romania were very close to the respective thresholds last year.