Poverty rate unchanged at 20.5pc

Planning Minister MA Mannan yesterday claimed that the poverty rate in Bangladesh remains unchanged at 20.5 per cent despite the economic fallout of Covid-19.

"Many private organisations say the poverty rate has increased according to their calculations, but we won't engage in this debate for now as the government is carrying out its own study on the matter," he said.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

"The media will be informed about our findings in due time," he said after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

The planning minister went on to say that the size of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has reached $411 billion as per calculations of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

"The GDP size has expanded thanks to the new base year adopted by the BBS," he said.

By changing the base year to 2015-16 from 2005-06, many new types of businesses and products were included in the economy, leading to the expansion of the GDP size.

A base year is a benchmark with reference to which national account figures such as GDP, gross domestic saving and gross capital formation are calculated.

"Since the GDP has expanded, production volumes increased and per capita income rose," Mannan added.

The foreign exchange reserve is now close to $50 billion, the planning minister said, adding that the literacy rate has reached 75.2 per cent.

According to the new base year, Bangladesh's economy is worth Tk 34,840 billion considering product prices in FY21, up 15.7 per cent from Tk 30,111 billion as per the previous base year.

In terms of constant prices, it stood at Tk 27,939 billion in FY21, up from Tk 12,072 billion as per the old base year, a BBS document shows.

Per capita income rose to $2,554 in FY21 as per the new calculation while it was $2,227 previously.