Home ›› 05 Nov 2021 ›› Front
Per capita income in Bangladesh now stands at $2,554 in the last 2020-21 fiscal year after the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics revised the base year for calculating the income figure.
The BBS now calculated the new average per-person income in the country taking FY2015-16 as the baseline.
“We have sent the calculations to the planning ministry for approval. Once approved, we will make the information public,” a senior official of the BBS told The Business Post.
He also said the country’s per capita income was at $2,227 when it was calculated considering FY2005-06 as the baseline.
State Minister for Planning Prof Shamsul Alam said the government finalised FY2015-16 as the new base year to calculate gross domestic product (GDP).
“From now, all national accounts will be calculated on this new base year. We will change the base year after every five years,” he added.
He said the implementation of the new base year should have been done earlier. If the calculation is based on the previous base year, it would not find the real picture of the economy, he added.
In the 2019-20 fiscal year, the per capita income was at $2,024. In FY2018-19, per capita income was at $1,909. In the fiscal year 2017-18, per capita income was at $1,751 while it was $1,610 in the fiscal year 2016-17.
Meanwhile, rebasing the GDP is the process of replacing an old base year with a more recent base year to keep up with the evolution in prices.
According to the BBS, the economy was estimated at Tk 34,840 billion at current prices in the fiscal year 2020-21 as per the new base 2015-16 year which was Tk 30,111 billion as per the previous base year.
The BBS also said the constant prices now stands at Tk 27,939 billion in the current fiscal year as per the new base year from Tk 12,072 billion as per the previous base year.
