Government: GDP grows faster than forecast in FY16

Oct 26, 2016

Bangladeshs economy grew faster in the last fiscal year than predicted,
the government said yesterday. According to final reading, the gross
domestic product growth was 7.11%, higher than provisional estimate,
Planning Minister Mostafa Kamal told journalists after a meeting of the
Executive Council of National Economic Committee (Ecnec). The
provisional GDP growth estimate was 7.05%. The minister had already
said the economy was growing faster due to uninterrupted political
stability in the country.
The Bangladesh economic growth was much higher than the World
Bank forecast of below 7% for the last fiscal year. In reaction to this, he
said: Earlier the World Bank would not include Bangladesh in its
economic development report because of being a minor economy. The
World Bank earlier expressed its surprise over the 7.05% provisional
estimate of Bangladeshs GDP growth for FY2016. However, the final
GDP calculation is very close to the estimate of Asian Development
Bank, which forecast that Bangladesh economy would grow 7.1% in the
FY2016.

Rejecting all criticisms against the GDP growth estimate, planning

minister termed the achievement of crossing 7% economic growth as
glorious milestone for the nation. This is one step forward to the
uplift of the nation in global arena as the GDP growth rate for the
current fiscal year is also to be surpassed the 7% target, Mostafa

Kamal said. To the best of my knowledge, this is the highest GDP

growth rate achieved by the country after independence. However, I
dont exactly know 7.11% is the highest record of GDP growth after
liberation or not, he said. With this final reading of economic growth,
Bangladesh broke its economic growth trap of 6% in decades.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data, Bangladesh
fared better in most sectors at constant prices during the last fiscal year.
The data showed the agriculture sector witnessed a final growth of
2.79%, up from the fiscal years provisional estimate of 2.6% and
3.33% from a year earlier.
The industry sector grew 11.09%, up from the fiscals provisional
estimate of 10.10% and 9.67% from a year ago.
However, the services sector growth is 6.25%, which is less than
the fiscal years provisional estimate of 6.70% and up from 5.80%
in the previous year.
Among other sectors, fishing rose 6.11%, mining and quarrying
12.84%, manufacturing 11.69%, electricity, gas and water supply
13.33%, and construction 8.56%.
The GDP size of the last fiscal year stood at Tk17,32,863 crores at the
current market price, which was Tk15,15,802 crores a year ago. The
gross national income was Tk18,326.49 crore.