Economy - overview:
The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$224 billion (2008 est.)
$213.6 billion (2007)
$201.1 billion (2006)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):
$83.04 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4.9% (2008 est.)
6.2% (2007 est.)
6.4% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$1,500 (2008 est.)
$1,400 (2007 est.)
$1,300 (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 19.1%
industry: 28.6%
services: 52.3% (2008 est.)
Labor force:
70.86 million
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 63%
industry: 11%
services: 26% (FY95/96)
Unemployment rate:
2.5% (includes underemployment) (2008 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.7%
highest 10%: 27.9% (2000)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
33.2 (2005)
Investment (gross fixed):
24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $8.831 billion
expenditures: $12.54 billion (2008 est.)
Public debt:
34.6% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
9.4% (2008 est.)
Central bank discount rate:
5% (31 December 2007)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:
16% (31 December 2007)
Stock of money:
$8.444 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:
$32.4 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:
$40.15 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:
$6.793 billion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:
rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry
Industries:
cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
Industrial production growth rate:
6.9% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:
22.78 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - consumption:
21.37 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2007 est.)
Oil - production:
6,746 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:
89,940 bbl/day (2006 est.)
Oil - exports:
1,351 bbl/day (2005)
Oil - imports:
83,220 bbl/day (2005)
Oil - proved reserves:
28 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)
Natural gas - production:
15.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
15.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)
Current account balance:
-$55 million (2008 est.)
Exports:
$13.97 billion (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:
garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
Exports - partners:
US 23%, Germany 13%, UK 9.1%, France 5.5%, Belgium 4% (2007)
Imports:
$20.17 billion (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
Imports - partners:
China 15%, India 14.3%, Kuwait 8.3%, Singapore 6.2%, Hong Kong 4.2% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$5.934 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Debt - external:
$21.72 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$5.618 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$104 million (2008 est.)
Exchange rates:
taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)
