GDP growth to reach 8.13pc, per capita income $1909 in FY19

The country’s economy will grow by record 8.13 percent in the current fiscal year (FY19) while the per capita income will reach US$1,909, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today.

The minister said this while briefing reporters after the day’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held at its conference room with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Planning Minister MA Mannan was present.

Referring to the provisional estimation of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Kamal said that the GDP growth rate is to reach 8.13 percent against 7.86 percent recorded in the last fiscal year.

He also said that the per capita income will increase to $1909 from $1751 in the last fiscal year.

The finance minister informed that the investment-GDP ratio in the current fiscal year is to reach 31.57 percent from 31.13 percent in the previous fiscal year.

Out of the total provisional investment-GDP ratio of 31.57 percent in the current year, the public investment ratio to GDP will rise to 8.17 percent while the private investment ratio to GDP will rise to 23.40 percent.

He said that the total size of the GDP in the current fiscal year will rise to Taka 25,36,177 crore from Taka 22,50,479 crore recorded in the last fiscal year.

The finance minister said that the areas of potentials are huge in the country, but many of those still remained unexplored. “We’ll have to explore those areas,”

Terming the private sector the ‘engine of growth’, Kamal said that they would give more incentives to the private sector to bring it more into the mainstream of the economy.

Mentioning that all the major macroeconomic indicators are now better, he said the rising trend of export earnings as we as inward remittance, increased investment as well as the growing size of the manufacturing sector have been helping in achieving this “eye-catching” growth.

The finance minister also expressed his high optimism about attaining double digit growth rate within the next four years.

According to the BBS provisional data, the growth of the agriculture sector in this year is going to reach 3.51 percent while the industry sector 13.02 percent and the services sector 6.50 percent.

Besides, the GNI in the current fiscal year will reach Taka 26,49,786 crore and the per capita GDP $1,827.