Bangladesh’s GDP growth rate highest in Asia, says finance minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said Bangladesh’s GDP grew by 3.51 percent in 2019-20 fiscal year which is higher than most of the Asian countries and that the growth was marred by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We all were affected by the coronavirus pandemic in this fiscal and there was no growth in Asian countries,” he told journalists after attending a virtual cabinet committee meeting on public purchase and economic affairs, on Wednesday.

He said: “If you look at Vietnam, their GDP grew by only 2.90 percent, which is lower than Bangladesh.”

The final GDP growth rate data provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics for the fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20) is 3.51 per cent which is lower than the originally targeted 8.2 per cent or even a revised target of 5.50 per cent.