Economy grows 7.25pc amid robust rebound

A robust rebound from pandemic shocks powers Bangladesh's economy to grow 7.25 per cent in the outgoing fiscal year as per an official estimation shown Tuesday.
The provisional data prepared by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) also show a remarkable concomitant lift to the per-capita income (Gross National Income-GNI) by $233 to $2,824 in the FY 2021-22.
In the last FY2021, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rate of 6.94 per cent from a massive shortcoming in the previous FY2020 when it expanded only 3.45 per cent for the fallout from the pandemic.
The per-capita GNI was recorded $2,591 in the last FY2021 and $2,326 in the previous FY2020.
However, the estimated economic growth is higher than the World Bank's forecast of 6.6 per cent and the Asian Development Bank's 6.9 per cent for the current financial year.
The BBS has prepared the provisional GDP figure based on the available data of the first 6-7 months of the current FY2022 and on the possible output of different sectors in the last quarter.
"After end of the current fiscal in June, we will get all the economic output data within the next couple of months and then we will give the final estimation of the country's GDP by revising the provisional one," a senior BBS official told the FE.
After the day's Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan published the BBS data with a good mood as the country's economy has returned into its usual trend of growth.
According to the official statisticians, Bangladesh's total GDP size at current price has been estimated at $465 billion in the current fiscal.
Meanwhile, the per-capita GDP in Bangladesh has been estimated at $2,723 in the current FY2022. In the last FY2021 the per-head GDP was $2,426.
In the previous FY2021, the size of the national economy at current price was $416 billion.
BBS officials say the service sector has prompted the economic growth of the country with its expansion by 6.31 per cent. In the last FY2021, the service sector grew at 5.73 per cent.
The growth rate in the industrial sector is also remarkable this fiscal as it has grown at a 10.44-percent rate compared to 10.20 per cent in the last FY2021.
The growth rate in agriculture, however, declined to 2.20 per cent compared to 3.17 per cent in the last fiscal, BBS provisional data show.
According to the BBS provisional data, the investment-GDP ratio also expanded to 31.68 per cent in the current FY2022 from previous 31.02 per cent.
When asked about the latest per-capita income and reality of people's livelihood, Planning Minister Mr Mannan cited a shopping binge.
"I think the per-head income data is okay when I notice the situation at the market. People do massive shopping. I see huge gathering at the markets daily," he said.
About the method of per-capita-income estimation, State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam said there is no standard method except for dividing the country's total national income with the total population for estimating the average per-capita income.
The BBS has considered 170.79 million total population of Bangladesh for its GDP calculation in the current FY2022.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Research Director Dr Khandaker Golam Moazzem said Bangladesh's economy would grow at a higher rate than last fiscal's and it was expected.
However, if the BBS considered the real exchange rate of the US dollar rather than the government-regulated rate, the size of the GDP as well as the per capita income could be lower, he said.
Dr Moazzem also raised a question over the BBS's population growth rate estimation as the national statistical body had considered the growth rate at 0.99 per cent for estimating the current FY2022 GDP.
In the last FY2021, the BBS considered Bangladesh's population growth rate at 1.02 per cent and in the previous FY2020 that was 1.08 per cent, he said.
Dr Moazzem questioned if Bangladesh's population growth rate decline to only 0.99 per cent within a year from 1.02 per cent a year ago.

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