Real income stagnancy calls meaning of development into question
Friday, 17 August 2007
FE Report
Lack of quality employment, coupled with stagnancy in real income growth, has rendered half the country's populace marginalised, leaving open the question about how meaningful is the development, economists told a seminar Thursday.
They said poverty reduction, mostly attained through social safety net measures, is unlikely to sustain, unless real income goes up.
"Even if poverty reduction is attained through safety net provisions, and other means, this cannot be sustained without a growth of real income," Rushidan Islam Rahman, a research director at the BIDS, said while presenting a paper on "Pro-poor growth: recent evidence from HIES data."
Rushidan said that dependence on casual employment as the major source of earning and low share of regular salary income were signs of marginalisation of the poor.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), a state-owned think tank, organised the seminar on "Pro-poor Growth and Food Security: Recent Experience in Bangladesh" in the city, with Mahbub Hossain, executive director of BRAC, in the chair.
Rushidan said labour-intensive growth is considered pro-poor, as this pushes up real wages, and reduce unemployment, while also raising the number of work days.
But, analysing data from the HIES (Household Income Expenditure Survey), she noted despite the rise of wages, income from wages and salary did not show "significant growth" between 2000 and 2005, thanks mainly to the decline in work days.
She said that the rate of employment over the last five years shrank by 4.4 per cent and the decline of employment among low-income groups was even higher at 8.0 per cent.
The BIDS economist pointed out that it remained a challenge for Bangladesh how it could ensure higher growth and pro-poor growth simultaneously.
Mahbub Hossain said a 'cohort data analysis' is needed to assess whether or not the economic growth has been pro-poor in recent years.
Bangladesh has sustained its growth rate in the last five years averaging 6.0 per cent, although it remains a contentious issue whether growth has benefited the poorer segment.
The BRAC executive chief also warned that Bangladesh might face severe food shortage in the near future, given the yield gap and exhaustion in supplies.
"We've still yield gap … We are unlikely to secure sustained food imports as export markets have been exhausted," Hossain, who worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute, told the seminar.
Research directors of BIDS M Asaduzzaman and KAS Murshid presented separate papers at the seminar while director general at BIDS Quazi Shahabudin delivered the welcome address.
Lack of quality employment, coupled with stagnancy in real income growth, has rendered half the country's populace marginalised, leaving open the question about how meaningful is the development, economists told a seminar Thursday.
They said poverty reduction, mostly attained through social safety net measures, is unlikely to sustain, unless real income goes up.
"Even if poverty reduction is attained through safety net provisions, and other means, this cannot be sustained without a growth of real income," Rushidan Islam Rahman, a research director at the BIDS, said while presenting a paper on "Pro-poor growth: recent evidence from HIES data."
Rushidan said that dependence on casual employment as the major source of earning and low share of regular salary income were signs of marginalisation of the poor.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), a state-owned think tank, organised the seminar on "Pro-poor Growth and Food Security: Recent Experience in Bangladesh" in the city, with Mahbub Hossain, executive director of BRAC, in the chair.
Rushidan said labour-intensive growth is considered pro-poor, as this pushes up real wages, and reduce unemployment, while also raising the number of work days.
But, analysing data from the HIES (Household Income Expenditure Survey), she noted despite the rise of wages, income from wages and salary did not show "significant growth" between 2000 and 2005, thanks mainly to the decline in work days.
She said that the rate of employment over the last five years shrank by 4.4 per cent and the decline of employment among low-income groups was even higher at 8.0 per cent.
The BIDS economist pointed out that it remained a challenge for Bangladesh how it could ensure higher growth and pro-poor growth simultaneously.
Mahbub Hossain said a 'cohort data analysis' is needed to assess whether or not the economic growth has been pro-poor in recent years.
Bangladesh has sustained its growth rate in the last five years averaging 6.0 per cent, although it remains a contentious issue whether growth has benefited the poorer segment.
The BRAC executive chief also warned that Bangladesh might face severe food shortage in the near future, given the yield gap and exhaustion in supplies.
"We've still yield gap … We are unlikely to secure sustained food imports as export markets have been exhausted," Hossain, who worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute, told the seminar.
Research directors of BIDS M Asaduzzaman and KAS Murshid presented separate papers at the seminar while director general at BIDS Quazi Shahabudin delivered the welcome address.