| |
Economy
Overview
:
Despite sustained domestic and international efforts to improve
economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains one of the world's
poorest, most densely populated, and least developed nations. The economy
is largely agricultural, with the cultivation of rice the single most
important activity in the economy. Major impediments to growth include
frequent cyclones and floods, the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises,
a rapidly growing labor force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture,
delays in exploiting energy resources (natural gas), inadequate power
supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Prime Minister
Sheikh HASINA Wajed's Awami League government has made some headway
improving the climate for foreign investors and liberalizing the capital
markets; for example, it has negotiated with foreign firms for oil and
gas exploration, better countrywide distribution of cooking gas, and
the construction of natural gas pipelines and power plants. Progress
on other economic reforms has been halting because of opposition from
the bureaucracy, public sector unions, and other vested interest groups.
The especially severe floods of 1998 increased the country's reliance
on large-scale international aid. So far the East Asian financial crisis
has not had major impact on the economy.
| GDP
- purchasing power parity |
: |
$187
billion (1999 est.) |
| GDP
- real growth rate |
: |
5.2%
(1999 est.) |
| GDP
- per capita - purchasing power parity |
: |
$1,470
(1999 est.) |
| GDP
- composition by sector |
: |
agriculture:
30%
industry: 17%
services: 53% (1999 est.) |
| Population
below poverty line |
: |
35.6%
(FY95/96 est.) |
| Household
income or consumption by percentage share |
: |
lowest
10%: 4.1%
highest 10%: 23.7% (1992) |
| Inflation
rate (consumer prices) |
: |
9%
(FY98/99 est.) |
| Labor
force |
: |
56
million (1995-96)
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait,
UAE, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, and Singapore |
| Labor
force - by occupation |
: |
agriculture
63%, services 26%, industry 11% (FY95/96) |
| Unemployment
rate |
: |
35.2%
(1996) |
| Budget |
: |
revenues:
$4.3 billion
expenditures: $6.5 billion, including capital
expenditures of $NA (1997) |
| Industries |
: |
cotton
textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper
newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light
engineering, sugar |
| Industrial
production growth rate |
: |
2.5%
(1997 est.) |
| Electricity
- production |
: |
12.5
billion kWh (1999 est.) |
| Electricity
- production by source |
: |
fossil
fuel: 98%
hydro: 2%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1999) |
| Electricity
- consumption |
: |
11.039
billion kWh (1998) |
| Agriculture
- products |
: |
rice,
jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes; beef, milk,
poultry, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices,
fruit |
| Exports |
: |
$5.1
billion (1998) |
| Exports
- commodities |
: |
garments,
jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood |
| Exports
- partners |
: |
US
33%, Germany 10%, UK 9%, France 6%, Italy 5% (1997) |
| Imports |
: |
$8.01
billion (1998) |
| Imports
- commodities |
: |
machinery
and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel,
textiles, raw cotton, food, crude oil and
petroleum products, cement |
| Imports
- partners |
: |
India
12%, China 9%, Japan 7%, Hong Kong 6%,
South Korea 6% (1997) |
| Currency |
: |
1
taka (Tk) = 100 paisa |
| Exchange
rates |
: |
taka
(Tk) per US$1 - 51.000 (January 2000), 49.085
(1999), 46.906 (1998), 43.892 (1997), 41.794
(1996),
40.278 (1995) |
| Fiscal
year |
: |
1
July - 30 June |
|
