Bangladesh’s national poverty rate rose to 29.40 percent as of June due to covid-19 fallout which forced around 1.48 crore people into unemployment bringing them down below poverty line.
As per the estimation of General Economic Division, the country’s poverty rose to 29.5 percent as of June 2020, which was 20.5 percent in the last fiscal year. This estimation will be included in the 8th Five Year Plan to be unveiled soon.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, the poverty rate declined to 20.5% in the country at the end of fiscal year 2018-19 from 21.8 percent in the financial year 2017-18. Extreme poverty rate also came down to 10.5% from 11.3 percent during that period.
Dr Shamsul Alam, member of Planning Commission (Senior Secretary) told The Business Post, “As of June, the country’s poverty rose to 29.5% due to Covid-19 pandemic as a huge number of people both in formal and informal sector lost jobs during March-June period.”
In line with the latest population of the country, 4.89 crore people are now in poverty. As of FY20, total population of the country is 16.65 crore.
But the rate of poverty will come down rapidly as about 95% economic activities have already reopened, said Dr Alam adding, it started to decline as people are engaging back in employment.
Dr Alam added, “We are taking specific plans in the 8th Five Year Plan to pull the new poor out of the poverty to bring the poverty rate at a level where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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