Poverty rate remains same at 20.5%: planning minister

Planning Minister MA Mannan today claimed that the poverty rate in the country is yet to be increased and it has remained the same as the previous rate of 20.5 per cent.

He spoke while addressing a press briefing following the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

The poverty rate is still as same as the previous rate at 20.5 per cent, he said while addressing a press briefing following the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

"Although many private organisations, according to their own calculation, think that this rate of poverty is higher, we won't engage in that debate," he said.

Informing that the government is also doing a calculation regarding the poverty rate, the minister said they would let the media know about it at the proper time.

Mannan said the size of the country's gross domestic product now reached $411 billion according to the new calculation of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

The GDP size has been expanded, thanks to the new base year adopted by the BBS, he said.

Due to the change of the base year to 2015-16 from the previous base year 2005-06, many new types of business and items have been included in the economy that led to the expansion of the size of GDP, he said.

Since the GDP size has been expanded, the volume of production increased with the rise of per capita income which now rose to $ 2554, Mannan said.

The foreign exchange reserve is now closed to $50 billion, the minister informed, adding that the literacy rate reached 75.2 per cent.

A base year is a benchmark with reference to which national account figures such as GDP, gross domestic saving and gross capital formation are calculated.

According to the new base year, Bangladesh has an economy of Tk 34,840 billion in current prices in FY21, up 15.7 per cent from Tk 30,111 billion as per the previous base year.

In constant prices, it stood at Tk 27,939 billion in FY 21 as per the new base year, up from Tk 12,072 billion as per the old base year, according to a document of the BBS.

Per capita income rose to $2,554 in FY21 as per the new calculation, which was $2,227 as per the old one.