Its 811 dollar with 1995 base year. It will be more than 1200 dollar after the new base year takes effect.
BD close to graduating status from LDC to developing one
With its annual per capita income having reached $818, Bangladesh is now close to improving its standing from that of a least developed country to a developing one, officials and experts said Tuesday in Dhaka.
Under the criteria set by the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the per capita income of a least developed country has to exceed $900 for inclusion as an economy on the road to graduation into a developing country, having a per capita income of over $1035.
Besides this, the criteria also include the status of human assets in terms of indicators relating to nutrition, health, education and adult literacy, extent of economic vulnerability, the degree of instability in relation to agricultural production and export earnings, relative importance of non-traditional economic activities, nature of export concentration and size of the economy.
Recently, the UNCTAD has also included the size of the population in the criteria for the least developed countries (LDCs), having set the limit of 75 million for the purpose.
The per capita income of Bangladesh in last fiscal 2009-10 was at $750 which, according to the latest available statistics of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), rose to $818 in fiscal 2010-11, according to official sources.
The officials also said in recent years, Bangladesh has also scored successes in human resource development, health and education status of its population. Besides, its agricultural production has come into a stable position, and exports have recorded a marked surge though some major dependence on its narrow product base in merchandise sector still remains.
The Bangladesh economy is also growing significantly with provisional BBS figures indicating a 6.66 per cent growth of its gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal 2010-11 against 6.07 per cent in fiscal 2009-10, the sources added.
The erstwhile least developed country, the Maldives has only recently graduated its status to that of a developing country stage, reducing the tally of the LDCs to 48.
Bangladesh is now almost at the top of the LDCs' ranking group, in terms of its relatively better performance - a reason for which its demand for better trade facilities is not equally shared by many other LDCs, the official sources noted.
They also observed that even some developing countries who are at the bottom of the related list have been opposing some of the demand of Bangladesh on the same ground.
Executive Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) -- a private sector think-tank -- Prof Mustafizur Rahman told the FE that the gross national income (GNI) of Bangladesh would indicate that the country stood among lower middle income group of countries.
"Our GNI is increasing, alongside rise in GDP. Our purchasing power is also rising. It is a good sign. But side by side, we have to concentrate on other indicators like exports, nutrition, health, education and climate change vulnerabilities," he noted.
Mr Rahman said: "Now we have to see how we can graduate ourselves to the status of a developing country."
Prof. Abu Ahmed of the University of Dhaka said Bangladesh had been doing much better than most other LDCs.
"Our average income is increasing significantly compared to the facilities that we do presently have," he said.
"Our economy could have grown at the rate of 7.5 per cent, had we no problem of gas and power supplies and other infrastructural deficit," Mr Ahmed observed.
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BD close to graduating status from LDC to developing one
