The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has revised downward the country’s GDP growth for FY24 downward to 4.22 percent from the initial estimate of 5.82 percent as corrected export figures skewed industrial output.
In its preliminary estimate made in May last year, the state statistics agency took into account a 12.21 percent growth in July-December’s exports, but the growth finally declined 21.07 from that estimate after the central bank revised export data for FY23 and FY24 due to double calculation of some merchandise shipments.
After the revision, the country’s GDP size stood at $450 billion, down from previously estimated $459 billion for FY24, according to latest data unveiled on Monday.
During the previous two fiscal years the GDP size was $452 and $460, when growth rate was recorded at 5.78 percent and 7.10 percent respectively.
In FY24, Bangladesh’s per-capita income also dropped from 2,784 to $2,738 in the final calculations last fiscal year. In the previous two fiscal years, per-capita income was $2,749 and $2,793 when taka’s value was higher against the greenback.
The average taka-dollar exchange rate soared to 111.06 in the BBS’ revised estimate from 109.97, which was 99.46 and 86.30 in FY23 and FY22 respectively.
The revision impacted all three key sectors—industry, services, and agriculture—with industry seeing the sharpest decline. Industry sector growth dropped to 3.51 percent in FY24 from 8.37 percent in FY23 and 9.86 percent in FY22.
The BBS had initially projected a 6.66 percent growth for the sector. Agriculture sector growth fell slightly to 3.30 percent from 3.37 percent in FY23, while services grew by 5.09 percent, down from 5.37 percent in the previous year.
Among the three sectors, the service sector’s GDP share rose to 51.44 percent from 51.05 percent in a year, while the industry sector fell to 37.37 percent from 37.65 percent and agriculture to 11.19 percent from 11.30 percent.
Despite initial estimates suggesting a modest rise in the investment-to-GDP ratio to 30.98 percent, the final figure stood at 30.70 percent, down from 30.95 percent in FY23 and 32.05 percent in FY22.
Domestic savings and national savings also dropped to 23.96 percent and 28.42 percent of GDP, compared to 25.76 percent and 29.95 percent a year earlier.
