Bangladesh has registered a real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of  5.2 percent, which was the highest in Asia, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said this while placing the budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.  The poverty rate has also halved in the last 15 years, a remarkable achievement for a country that was once dubbed as a "basket case" by the West. 

"Despite the pandemic, the government has been able to maintain the macroeconomic stability of the economy with prudent fiscal policy and accommodative monetary policy," he said.

The country's per capita income stood at USD 2,227 which was USD 2064 in 2019-20, and USD 543 in 2005-2006 fiscal.

The poverty rate has also halved in the last 15 years from 41.5 percent in FY 2005-2006 to 20.5 percent now, according to the proposed budget for FY 2021-2022.

Foreign exchange reserves crossed USD 44 billion which was just USD 0.744 billion in FY 2005-2006.

Life expectancy stood at 72.6 years which was 65.4 in FY 2005-2006.

(SAM)