The country’s GDP growth shrank by 1.81 percentage points to 4.59 percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year thanks to a political unrest in the first two months of FY25.
During the July-September period a year earlier, Bangladesh economy posted a healthy growth of 6.04 percent, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data published on Monday.
It was the slowest growth in over three and a half years. The growth rate slumped to 0.26 percent in the second quarter of FY21 when the Corona outbreak battered the economy.
The GDP growth target for the current 2024-25 fiscal year has been set at 5.25 percent, lower than the 6.8 percent target in the last fiscal year.
The slowing growth exposed the fragility of Bangladesh’s economic recovery amid political uncertainty and low business confidence.
The economy faced a shockwave before and after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina’s government on 5 August as political unrest and poor law and order situation harmd key sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, and services.
Agricultural output rose just 0.16 percent in the July-September quarter in FY25, down from 0.35 percent growth a year earlier.
The growth of the industrial sector, now considred a growth driver of Bangladesh’s economy, tapered to 2.13 percent, a sharp decline from the robust 8.22 percent growth posted during the first quarter of FY24.
The service sector, which accounts for a significant share of the country’s GDP, grew by 1.54 percent in contrast to 5.07 percent a year earlier.
