GDP growth now 7.28pc: Mustafa Kamal

Breaking all the previous records, Bangladesh has finally registered the highest-ever 7.28 per cent GDP growth in the last fiscal year (FY17), reports UNB.

The GDP growth finally stood at 7.28 per cent in the last fiscal, said planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

The minister was briefing reporters after the Ecnec meeting held at the NEC conference room with Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Earlier, the government had set a provisional growth of 7.24 percent last fiscal year. The full and final statistics will be disclosed in detail on Thursday, Kamal said.

The government had set a growth target of 7.2 percent for 2016-17 fiscal. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, the GDP growth was 7.11 percent with the size of Tk17328.64 billion and per capita income at $1,465.

Mustafa Kamal also informed that the per capita income also increased to $1610 last fiscal year, up from the provisional estimate of $1602.

Besides, he said, the size of the GDP now stands at $250 billion, but it took around 34 years after the War of Independence to lift the countrys GDP size to $100 billion. Given the fact, its a record achievement.

The planning minister said the per capita income has increased due to the increase in the GDP growth.

Apart from Bangladesh, he said, Cambodia and Ethiopia have attained over 7 per cent GDP growth in much lesser time among the other countries of the world.

Among the three major sectoral growth, he said the industry sector achieved the highest growth of 10.22 per cent in the last fiscal year followed by 6.69 per cent by the services sector and 2.97 per cent by the agriculture sector.

Mustafa Kamal also expressed his high hope that the countrys GDP growth will reach over 8 per cent by 2019 while it would remain within 9 to 10 per cent by 2030.

If we can maintain that, then well be able to attain our real target of 2041 (becoming a developed country),the minister added.

The planning minister also disclosed partially the inflation statistics for September, which stood at 6.04 per cent, slightly higher than the 6.02 per cent registered in August.

The inflation statistics included the overall food and non-food items.