The poverty rate has decreased in Bangladesh despite the significant impact of the Russia-Ukraine war at a time when people are still trying to cope with the aftermath of Covid-19.
However, during this ongoing crisis, the country's rich have become richer at a faster rate than the poor, who are not able to increase their income.
As a result, income and consumption inequality is on the rise, according to the latest data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) regarding the “Household Income and Expenditure Survey -2022” on Wednesday.
In 2022, income inequality rose to 0.499 from 0.482 in 2016 and 0.458 in 2010.
BBS data also shows that the consumption-related Gini coefficient was 0.334 in 2022, an increase from 0.324 in 2016 and 0.321 in 2010.
The Gini coefficient, also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent income inequality or wealth inequality or consumption inequality within a nation or a social group.
The Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.
A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
The BBS data also disclose that the average monthly household income in Bangladesh rose to Tk32,422 in 2022, a rise of more than 102% compared to the last survey conducted six years ago in 2016.
With that, the poverty rate in Bangladesh has come down to 18.7% and the extreme poverty rate stands at 5.6%.
In 2016, the average monthly income was Tk15,988, which was Tk11,479 in 2010.
BBS believes, if this trend of poverty reduction continues, the country will be poverty free by 2031.
This household income and expenditure survey has been done with the information of 14,400 families in the country. BBS collected their data from January 1 to December 31, 2022.
