Economy - overview:

The economy has grown 5-6% over the past few years despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):

$206.7 billion (2007 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):

$72.42 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

5.6% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):

$1,300 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 19%
industry: 28.7%
services: 52.3% (2007 est.)

Labor force:

69.4 million
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2007 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 63%
industry: 11%
services: 26% (FY95/96)

Unemployment rate:

1% (includes underemployment) (2007 est.)

Population below poverty line:

45% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 3.7%
highest 10%: 27.9% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:

33.4 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

8.4% (2007 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):

26% of GDP (2007 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $6.796 billion
expenditures: $9.794 billion (2007 est.)

Public debt:

37.4% of GDP (2007 est.)

Agriculture - products:

rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry

Industries:

cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar

Industrial production growth rate:

9.5% (2007 est.)

Electricity - production:

21.35 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - consumption:

19.49 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:

0 kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:

0 kWh (2005)

Oil - production:

6,746 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - consumption:

86,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:

1,100 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:

81,010 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:

28 million bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

Natural gas - production:

13.43 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:

13.43 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:

0 cu m (2005)

Natural gas - proved reserves:

135.8 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.)

Current account balance:

$334 million (2007 est.)

Exports:

$11.75 billion (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities:

garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood

Exports - partners:

US 23.9%, Germany 12.2%, UK 9.7%, France 5% (2006)

Imports:

$16.03 billion (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities:

machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement

Imports - partners:

China 17.7%, India 13.2%, Kuwait 8.1%, Singapore 4.9% (2006)

Economic aid - recipient:

$1.321 billion (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:

$5.515 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Debt - external:

$21.23 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:

$4.938 billion (2007 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:

$105 million (2007 est.)

Market value of publicly traded shares:

$3.61 billion (2006)

Currency (code):

taka (BDT)

Exchange rates:

taka per US dollar - 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004), 58.15 (2003)

Fiscal year:

1 July - 30 June