Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Bangladesh > Map Economy History |
| Economy - overview: Despite sustained domestic and international
efforts to improve economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains
one of the world's poorest, most densely populated, and least developed
nations. 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. Major impediments
to growth include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned
enterprises, inadequate port facilities, a rapidly growing labor force
that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, delays in exploiting energy
resources (natural gas), insufficient power supplies, and slow
implementation of economic reforms. Reform is stalled in many instances by
political infighting and corruption at all levels of government. Even so,
Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA's Awami League government has made some
headway improving the climate for foreign investors and liberalizing the
capital markets. Progress on other economic reforms has been halting
because of opposition from the bureaucracy, public sector unions, and
other vested interest groups. GDP: purchasing power parity - $203 billion (2000 est.) GDP - real growth rate: 5.3% (2000 est.) GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $1,570 (2000 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 30% industry: 18% services: 52% (2000 est.) Population below poverty line: 35.6% (FY95/96 est.) Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.9% highest 10%: 28.6% (1995-96 est.) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.8% (2000 est.) Labor force: 64.1 million (1998) note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $1.71 billion in 1998-99 Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 63%, services 26%, industry 11% (FY95/96) Unemployment rate: 35.2% (1996) Budget: revenues: $4.9 billion expenditures: $6.8 billion (FY99/00 est.) Industries: cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar Industrial production growth rate: 6.1% (2000 est.) Electricity - production: 12.06 billion kWh (1999) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 98% hydro: 2% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1999) Electricity - consumption: 11.039 billion kWh (1998) Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1999) Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1999) Agriculture - products: rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes; beef, milk, poultry, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit Exports: $5.9 billion (2000) Exports - commodities: garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood Exports - partners: US 31.2%, Germany 9.95%, UK 8.06%, France 5.82%, Italy 4.42% (1999) Imports: $8.1 billion (2000) Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, raw cotton, food, crude oil and petroleum products, cement Imports - partners: India 12.2%, Singapore 7.8%, Japan 6.7%, China 6.4%, US 5.3% (1999) Debt - external: $17 billion (2000) Economic aid - recipient: $1.575 billion (2000 est.) Currency: 1 taka (Tk) = 100 poisha SOURCE: The World Factbook |
Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Bangladesh > Map Economy History