Economy grows by 3.78% in Oct-Dec, slowest in three quarters

Bangladesh's economic growth just halved to 3.78 percent in the October-December period of 2023-24 fiscal year, which is the slowest at least in three quarters, as manufacturing output growth declined sharply owing to reduced domestic consumption and slow export.

Services sector growth also reduced to a half during the quarter, offsetting the marginal spike in agricultural production, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said in its quarterly estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) published today.

The economic growth was 7.08 percent in the October-December period of 2022.

The BBS published its estimate at a time when international agencies are forecasting the below average growth of Bangladesh's economy.

Last week, the World Bank (WB) said the GDP growth is projected to remain relatively subdued at 5.6 percent in the current fiscal year, compared to the average annual growth rate of 6.6 percent over the decade preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Relatively slower growth is projected to persist in the next fiscal year of 2024-25, at 5.7 percent, driven by a modest recovery in private consumption supported by a moderation in inflation, said the WB in its April issue of Bangladesh Development Update.

The national statistical agency said industrial production expanded 3.24 percent in the October-December period of 2023 from 10 percent in the same period a year ago.

The output growth in the industrial sector, which makes up 37.57 percent of the economy, was the lowest in the five quarters, said the BBS, which began to calculate quarterly GDP in line with a condition of $4.7 billion loan provided by the International Monetary Fund to Bangladesh.

This is the second issue of quarterly estimate of GDP, a measure of the values of goods and services produced in an economy in a certain period.

The BBS said farm production grew 4.65 percent in the October-December period from 4.22 percent a year ago.

The services sector, which accounts for half of the GDP, increased 3.06 percent in the second quarter of FY24, half of what it registered a year ago.