Bangladesh’s economy grew faster in the last fiscal year than predicted, the government said yesterday. According to final reading, the gross domestic product growth was 7.11%, higher than provisional estimate, Planning Minister Mostafa Kamal told journalists after a meeting of the Executive Council of National Economic Committee (Ecnec). The provisional GDP growth estimate was 7.05%. The minister had already said the economy was growing faster due to uninterrupted political stability in the country. The Bangladesh economic growth was much higher than the World Bank forecast of below 7% for the last fiscal year. In reaction to this, he said: “Earlier the World Bank would not include Bangladesh in its economic development report because of being a minor economy.” The World Bank earlier expressed its surprise over the 7.05% provisional estimate of Bangladesh’s GDP growth for FY2016. However, the final GDP calculation is very close to the estimate of Asian Development Bank, which forecast that Bangladesh economy would grow 7.1% in the FY2016. Rejecting all criticisms against the GDP growth estimate, planning minister termed the achievement of crossing 7% economic growth as “glorious milestone” for the nation. “This is one step forward to the uplift of the nation in global arena as the GDP growth rate for the current fiscal year is also to be surpassed the 7% target,” Mostafa Kamal said. “To the best of my knowledge, this is the highest GDP growth rate achieved by the country after independence. However, I don’t exactly know 7.11% is the highest record of GDP growth after liberation or not,” he said. With this final reading of economic growth, Bangladesh broke its economic growth trap of 6% in decades. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data, Bangladesh fared better in most sectors at constant prices during the last fiscal year. The data showed the agriculture sector witnessed a final growth of 2.79%, up from the fiscal year’s provisional estimate of 2.6% and 3.33% from a year earlier. The industry sector grew 11.09%, up from the fiscal’s provisional estimate of 10.10% and 9.67% from a year ago. However, the services sector growth is 6.25%, which is less than the fiscal year’s provisional estimate of 6.70% and up from 5.80% in the previous year. Among other sectors, fishing rose 6.11%, mining and quarrying 12.84%, manufacturing 11.69%, electricity, gas and water supply 13.33%, and construction 8.56%. The GDP size of the last fiscal year stood at Tk17,32,863 crore at the current market price, which was Tk15,15,802 crore a year ago. The gross national income was Tk18,326.49 crore.
