The country’s rural economy has expanded remarkably in a decade, contributing to help cut the rate of poverty, says a study of national statistics agency.
Economic units in the rural areas grew 72% in 2013 compared to 62.61% in 2003 and, during the period, economic units in the urban areas declined to 27.96% from 37.39%, according to preliminary data on the Economic Census 2013 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Non-farm economic unit grew over more than 10% year-on-year, it said. The final reports will be published by June 2015. The survey covered temporary and permanent establishments and economic households.
An economic unit is any player that contributes to the country’s gross domestic product, starting from rickshaw-pullers to large garment factories. Agriculture has been excluded from the survey as the statistical agency conducts a separate census for it.
The report was presented at a workshop on Preliminary Report and Proposed Tabulation Plan at the BBS auditorium in the city yesterday. Some of statistics of the report was also published in November last year.
Conducted by the BBS between March 31 and May 31 last year, the survey found the number of economic units to be 80.75 lakh, up 118% from the previous edition of the survey published in 2003.
The total number of economic units in 2003 was 37.08 lakh, an increase of 71% from 1986, when the first edition of the survey came out.
Of the total economic units, the number of permanent establishments accounted for over 56% to 45.35 lakh in 2013, while the number of temporary establishments made up over 6% to 5 lakh and households 37.6% to 30 lakh, implying that the Bangladesh economy is getting sustainable and moving towards industrialisation, according to the report.
The highest number of economic units was set up in Dhaka, followed by Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet. Dhaka has been persistently the house of the highest number of economic units with strong upward trend as the number increased to nearly 26 lakh in 2013 from 12 lakh in 2003.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Economic Affairs Dr Mashiur Rahman inaugurated the workshop and said the report will help identify the nature of structural change and economic trend that has occurred in the economy over the last decade.
It will also provide comprehensive statistical information for economic and social development planning as well as policy making, he said.
“Poverty in the rural area, particularly north, has noticeably fell due to increased economic activities in the area,” he said.
FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed said the data will help make future plan for taking investment decision. “It is also important to take the country further forward,” he said.
Secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division Md Nojibur Rahman, BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal and also others spoke.
In Bangladesh, the economic census is supposed to be conducted every 10 years on a local to national level to provide data concerning products, sales, industries, economic activities, investment, employers, and employees. The BBS conducted the first census in 1986 and the second one was done in two phases in 2001 and 2003.
