Ulan Bator, Jul 3 (IANS): Mongolia has been reclassified by the World Bank from a lower-middle income country to an upper-middle income country for the 2024 fiscal year, announced the country's Finance Ministry on Wednesday.

This marks Mongolia's first inclusion in the upper-middle-income category since 2014, according to a ministry statement, reported Xinhua news agency.

The World Bank Group categorises the world's economies into four groups by income level: low, lower middle, upper middle, and high. The classification is updated each year on July 1 based on gross national income per capita for the previous calendar year.

Mongolia's income was estimated at 4,950 US dollars per capita, leading to its elevation in the global economy ranking.

Last year, the Asian country's gross domestic product expanded by 7.0 per cent, according to revised data by the country's National Statistics Office.

The World Bank predicts that Mongolia's economy is projected to grow by 4.8 per cent in 2024.