Staff Reporter :
The World Bank (WB) has upgraded Bangladesh’s rating in terms of improved economic performance to lower middle income country status in this year’s annual rating released on July 1 from Washington.
The latest estimates of Gross National Income per capita (GNI) in Bangladesh has moved up to $1,314 while as per WB classification a country having a NGI from $1,046 to $4,125 are called lower-middle income countries.
The WB report said Bangladesh has showed good economic performance to justify the upgradation of its status. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has welcomed the WB rating and hoped Bangladesh would become a high middle income country in 2021. Experts say it is a good move upward but Bangladesh would still remain bracketed as a least income country (LDC) along with 31 others having their per capita income below one thousand dollar.
They said a country should fulfill three broad conditions to be finally elevated to middle- income status beginning with the lower middle income rating.
These conditions are (1) index on the fragility of the economy (2) Index on human development and (3) per capita income index. According to WB report Bangladesh has somehow overcome the per capita income index although it is still at its lowest level. But the fragile economic condition resulting from a highly critical political situation remains a big threat to continued growth.
Moreover, unbridled corruption by ruling party men, poor governance, money laundering and misappropriation of budgetary money are pulling the country back from achieving its desired growth given the potentials that exist. The business is also facing threats slowing down investment. The cost of business is discouraging FDI to accelerate the socio-economic growth.
Had these factors were working well; Bangladesh deserves to achieve faster growth and higher rating.
Experts say the country should make significant stride to achieve human development which provides the essential manpower to run a fast growing economy. Recent report by BBS shows that the number of poor in the country is still staggering and the number of slum in urban areas has increased by almost five times to 13,943 slums and slum dwellers to over 22 lakhs from about 14 lakhs over the past decade.
The country must achieve remarkable progress in poverty reduction to upgrade the living of the poor, as the given per capita income alone does not reflect an equitable distribution of income.
About five percent wealthy people now control 90 percent of wealth and the poor are left almost hapless; this per capita income is not the measure of welfare of the common people. Bangladesh needs better equitable distribution of income to claim to be a better develop nation. It must work hard and overcome crisis.
Experts said despite a nation enter the middle-income status, it may remain in the hangover for decades if its infrastructure, education, human development and such other sensitive factors do not equally develop and its export competitiveness does not excel in global market.
Even countries like Brazil, South Africa and Russia are suffering from the hang over because they are yet to achieve the breakthrough to claim their status with the developed economies.
In the new upgradation list, apart from Bangladesh, three other countries have got their income status upgraded-Kenya, Myanmar, and Tajikistan. The per capita income in As perBangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) the per capita income in the country rose from $1,190 to $1,314 from 2013 t0 2014.
Mongolia and Paraguay move from lower middle-income status to upper middle-income, a group with yearly income levels of $4,126 to $12,735.
GNI is a broad-based measure of income generated by a nation’s residents from international and domestic activity. GNI per capita measures the average amount of resources available to persons in a given economy and reflects the average economic well-being of a population.
