Exciting growth in wider economic landscape

From a low-income sovereign country to lower-middle income and soon-to-be a middle-income nation – Bangladesh has kept up an impressive track record for growth and development, and been staring at its Vision 2041 after graduating from the Least Developed Country status.

Primarily, the year 2015 represented a watershed in the history of Bangladesh’s economic status when the nation was named to join for the first time the middle-income club from a low-income poor country and the race is on.

Over the past years, giant strides have been made in Gross Domestic Product, Annual Development Programme, per capita income and national budget – all pointing to the possibility of achieving a middle-income country status in 2026 for which the United Nations General Assembly has already adopted the resolution.

Bangladesh is now considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world with the annual growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 6.0 per cent.

“It took us 38 years since independence for our GDP to cross $ 100-billion mark. It has grown more than 4 times in the last 12 years which is now $ 411 billion,” according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

“As per the Spectator Index, Bangladesh achieved the highest GDP growth rate in the world over the fiscal period of 2009-2019 accounting for 188 per cent followed by China 177 per cent and India 117 per cent.”

The per capita income rose by 45 per cent in the last five years before the pandemic hit the world. This growth rate equals that of China and India as well.

In Fiscal Year 1972-73, the size of GDP was Tk 49,853 million while per capita income was Tk 676 (US$ 88).  The size of National Budget was Tk 786 crore and the ADP was Tk 501 crore.

The Fiscal Year 2020-21 witnessed a staggering Tk 34,840 billion GDP while per capita income went up to $ 2,554 as per the base year of 2015-16.

Similarly, the size of national budget in the last fiscal was Tk 5.68 trillion while the ADP size was Tk 2.05 trillion.

In Fiscal Year 1980-81, the GDP was Tk 322,136 million, per capita income Tk 3,645 ($ 224) following the base year of 1995-96. The National Budget was Tk 4,108 crore and the ADP was Tk 2,700 crore at that time.

In Fiscal Year 1990-91, the GDP was Tk 1,105,181 million, per capital income Tk 10,169 ($ 285) according to the base year of 1995-96. The size of National Budget was Tk 12,960 crore and the ADP was Tk 5,668 crore.

In Fiscal Year 2000-01, the GDP was Tk 2,913,371 million while the per capita income was Tk 23,091 ($ 428) in accordance with the base year of 2005-06. The size of National Budget was Tk 38,524 crore and the ADP was Tk 17,500 crore.

In FY2010-11, there was Tk 9,158,288 million GDP and the per capita income was Tk 66,044 ($ 928) as per the base year of 2005-06.

The size of National Budget was Tk 132,170 crore and the ADP was Tk 35,130 crore.

Contribution to GDP

The contribution of agricultural sector to the Gross Domestic Product has come down chronologically since Bangladesh’s independence.

However, the contribution of industry and service sectors has shot up rapidly due to urbanisation and infrastructure development across the country. At present, service sector contributes half the total GDP.

In FY1972-73, agricultural sector contributed 49.57 per cent to the GDP while industry and service sector 12.56 per cent and 37.86 per cent respectively.

In Fiscal Year 2020-21, agricultural sector made 12.12 per cent while industry and service sectors 33.89 per cent and 53.99 per cent respectively.

State Minister for Planning Prof Shamsul Alam said Bangladesh’s economy would have grown more if previous governments had adopted proper policy and carried out development projects in due manner.

“In the last 12 years, the country has improved significantly in all sectors. The pandemic slowed our ongoing development to some extent, but now we are executing plans in full swing,” he added.

“The incumbent government vision 2041 stipulates that it will eliminate extreme poverty, secure the status of an upper middle-income country by 2031 and the high-income country status by 2041.”