A government review has found significant discrepancies in Bangladesh’s GDP calculations during the previous administration, State Minister for Planning Zonayed Saki said on Sunday.
“Substantial discrepancies have been found in the GDP calculations, and evidence of these inconsistencies has also emerged,” Saki said at a discussion marking National Statistics Day at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) headquarters in Agargaon, Dhaka.
He disclosed that a forensic audit had uncovered evidence of irregularities in the country’s official economic statistics.
Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, who attended the programme as chief guest, said a committee had conducted a forensic audit to examine irregularities in the statistical records of the previous administration.
Emphasising the importance of reliable data in policymaking, Khosru said, the audit findings would be made public soon after review by experts
However, he said the exercise was aimed at uncovering past irregularities rather than targeting individuals.
“Questionable statistics serve no purpose. It is like deceiving ourselves,” he said, describing information as one of the government’s most important assets.
He said the government was committed to ensuring full independence for the BBS and was considering its manpower shortages to strengthen the agency’s capacity. Greater transparency and wider access to official data would help identify inconsistencies and create opportunities for correction, he added.
Saki said reliable statistics were essential to understanding where the country stood economically, where it wanted to go and where policy failures had occurred. Restoring public confidence in official statistics was therefore a major priority, he added.
As part of efforts to strengthen the BBS’s autonomy, the agency was now publishing key indicators, including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), without requiring the minister’s signature, Saki said.
Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, adviser to the Finance and Planning Ministry, said the review had also uncovered serious discrepancies in other areas, including social safety-net records.
He alleged that statistics had been used during the previous administration to construct a particular narrative, while many people entitled to social protection benefits had been excluded from the programmes.
Citing another example of inconsistencies in official records, Titumir said the number of water vessels had previously been recorded at 13,000, but a subsequent review found the actual figure to be around 267,000.
The government was taking initiatives to introduce digital registry-sharing systems to improve the accuracy of official records and address such discrepancies, he said, describing the spread of false information as a form of hybrid warfare.
Prime Minister’s Political Adviser Zahir Uddin Swapan said scientifically generated statistics were essential for sound development planning and effective policymaking.
The discussion was chaired by Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Md Firoz Sarkar, while BBS Director General Md Shamimul Haque delivered the welcome address.
BBS Director Kabir Uddin Ahmed, Dhaka University Professor Syed Shahadat Hossain and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Director General A K Enamul Haque also participated in the discussion.