Mon, July 30, 2012
DHAKA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's per capita income leaped to 66,238 taka (about 838.46 U.S. dollars) in the last fiscal year ended in July, which is beyond reach with respect to the country's target of graduating to a middle income country status, an official said Monday.
Quoting provisional statistics, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) official preferring unnamed told Xinhua on Monday, "Per capita income in the last fiscal year marked 14.12 percent rise due mainly to hefty growth in inflow of remittance."
A hefty growth in per capita income is very important for Bangladesh as the South Asian nation aims at achieving the status of a middle- income country from that of a Least Developed Country by 2021, according to government's perspective plan.
For Bangladesh to graduate to a mid-income country, its per capita income should be 1,006 U.S. dollars now. But the required per capita income at that time (2021) would be 1,300 U.S. dollars, meaning a growth rate of 7. 5 percent to 8 percent is needed every fiscal year.
The BBS official said Bangladesh will need a steady growth in inflow remittances to turn its dream into reality.
The inflow of remittances by millions of non-resident Bangladeshis in the 2011-12 fiscal year concluded in June reached a record high of about 13 billion U.S. dollars, over 10 percent higher than the same period a year ago, the central bank spokesman AFM Asaduzzaman had earlier said.
Apart from robust growth in inflow of remittances, the BBS official said the farm sector growth, as a result of bumper rice production in the country, also contributed to the increase of per capita income.
He said the rise in per capita income demonstrates the country' s overall income significantly increased though the GDP, or Gross Domestic Product growth, dipped in the last fiscal year.
The South Asian country of around 152.52 million people attained 6.3 percent growth in GDP in 2011-12 fiscal year against 6.71 percent in the previous 2010-11 fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
The BBS official said a steady growth in inflow of remittance is needed to maintain unhampered growth in per capita income but it would not be easy as global economic slowdown squeezed the fresh employment opportunities for Bangladeshis.
In the wake of global economic slowdown, there are significant downside risks for Bangladesh's export and remittance growth, and therefore for this GDP growth target, the central bank of Bangladesh said in its new monetary statement unveiled last week.
The BBS official, however, said although per capita income had increased in the last fiscal year but it was not sure whether per head income of the poor rose or not.
The incidence of Poverty in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world due to inequality. According to the government, about one-third (31.5 percent) of its population is living below the poverty line, who earn less than two U.S. dollars a day. Enditem
