Economy at risk of deep slump with GDP drop: BBS

Bangladesh’s economy is most likely to plunge into the deepest slump on record as its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will drop by 2.92 percent for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis due to coronavirus outbreak. 

Meanwhile, the average per capita income has increased by USD 155 in one year. 

Provisional data from the office of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), released on Tuesday, show that GDP — the broadest measure of economic prosperity — fell to 5.28 percent in the last concluding fiscal year in June though Bangladesh will not officially declare recession. 

Besides, despite the coronavirus pandemic situation, Bangladesh's per capita income has increased in the 2019-20 fiscal year. BBS on Tuesday cited preliminary data on the country's economic growth. 

At the end of the financial year, the average per capita income of the people of the country stood at USD 2,064 which was USD 1,909 in the previous financial year. 

 Besides, the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been achieved at 5.24 percent and at fixed price, its size is Tk 2,696,036 crore. 

The target for GDP growth in 2019-20 was 8.2 percent. Earlier, in the fiscal year 2018-19, Bangladesh achieved 8.15 percent GDP growth, which was the highest growth in the history of Bangladesh. 

The government has set a target of 8.2 percent GDP growth in the current fiscal year 2020-21. 

According to the BBS data, the service sector accounted for 55.6 percent of the GDP at a fixed price of Tk 26.97 lakh crore initially in the financial year. In terms of money, the amount is Tk 14 lakh 91 thousand 423 crore. Around 31.13 percent or Tk 8 lakh 31 thousand 696 crore came from the industrial sector. 

And Tk 3 lakh 46 thousand 737 crore or 13 percent came from the agricultural sector. 

It is learned that BBS will publish the final account in one and a half to two months.  

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