ABSTRACT
The World Bank's World Development Indicators provide a valuable database spanning over half a century that enables an economic and social evaluation of South Asian economies. Comparing the South Asian region with others indicates that, overall, it remains an economically and socially lagging region. South Asian countries share commonalities in culture, histories and institutions, but nonetheless vary a great deal. Afghanistan desperately needs peace. It ended the second decade of the twenty-first century with the lowest per capita GDP in the region, highest poverty rate, collapsed per capita GDP growth rates, collapsed domestic savings rate of virtually zero, a huge trade deficit, very low productivity in all the sectors and an incomplete structural change. Bangladesh also appears to be the only South Asian country to have bucked the premature deindustrialization trend. The numbers count for the most in India as the dominant country in the South Asian regional grouping.
