IMF wants BBS to release GDP data quarterly

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) to release quarterly data of the gross domestic product (GDP).

“IMF wants to release the country’s GDP data in quarterly basis. We are working to rebase the base year to calculate the GDP every three months,” said BBS Director General (DG) Matiar Rahman emerging out of a meeting with an IMF delegation on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by IMF Mission Chief Rahul Anand, BBS National Accounting Wing Director Ziauddin Ahmed and top officials from both the organisations.

Matiar Rahman told The Business Post, “The IMF is providing technical assistance to prepare and release GDP data quarterly. That is why IMF team came today to know about the progress of works.”

The DG said BBS is calculating GDP of the last quarter of the current fiscal year. “There are some problems in publishing the GDP data every quarter as we have to collect data from different institutions,” Matiar said.

“Almost all South Asian countries publish their quarterly report on GDP. We also have to follow it. We have informed IMF delegation that it will take time to publish quarterly data of GDP,” he added.

On the other hand, he said IMF team wanted to know about the reason of delay in releasing inflation data of August.

“We told the team that we need permission from the state to release the information. That is why it is being delayed,” he added.

Earlier, Planning Minister MA Mannan said that the inflation increased in August but it came down slightly in September. BBS released the inflation data of two months in October.

Meanwhile, the IMF also wanted to know the latest data on the country’s poverty and employment rate.

In reply to a query, he said the issue of IMF’s $4.5 billion loan support was not discussed in the meeting with the bureau.