Economic activity in the country has slowed down further. According to the latest estimates by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth fell to 2.22% in the January–March quarter of FY26.
As a result, GDP growth has consistently declined across all three quarters of the current fiscal year.
On Monday (July 20), BBS released the preliminary GDP estimates for the January–March quarter.
Earlier in the same fiscal year, growth stood at 4.96% in the July–September quarter and dropped to 3.03% in the October–December quarter.
In the latest quarter, it slowed further down to 2.22%.
According to economists, the growth rate was affected by business uncertainty surrounding the national election held during January–March this year, alongside a slowdown in investment and stagnation in industrial production.
Earlier, the impact of the student-led mass movement in July–August of FY25 and the subsequent economic slowdown persisted into later periods.
In its recently published provisional estimate, BBS noted that overall GDP growth for FY26 reached 4.14%.
GDP is calculated based on three major sectors—agriculture, industry, and services.
Among these, the industrial sector was in the weakest position during the January–March quarter, registering a negative growth of -0.28%.
This means industrial production contracted compared to the same period of the previous year.
On the other hand, the agriculture sector grew by 1.74%, and the service sector recorded a growth of 3.52%.
According to BBS data, total gross value added (GVA) at constant prices during the January–March quarter was Tk908,541 crore.
In the preceding October–December quarter, it was Tk900,403 crore, while in the first quarter (July–September) of the fiscal year, value addition stood at Tk859,010 crore.
GDP represents the total monetary value of final goods and services produced in a country within a specific period. It is used to measure the size and growth trends of a country's economy.