Bangladesh’s Cabinet Secretary informed reporters earlier this month that the country’s GDP per capita had increased by 9% in the previous year to $2,227. In the meantime, Pakistan has a per capita income of $1,543.
Pakistan was 70% wealthier than Bangladesh in 1971, but Bangladesh is now 45 percent wealthier. “It is possible that we would be requesting aid from Bangladesh in 2030,” a Pakistani analyst gloomily observed.
India, which prides itself on being the only South Asian economy that matters, now faces the reality that it, too, is poorer per capita than Bangladesh. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, India’s per capita income was $1,947.
Exports, social progress, and fiscal prudence are the three pillars that support Bangladesh’s growth. Bangladesh’s exports expanded at an annual rate of 8.6% between 2011 and 2019, compared to a global average of 0.4 percent. The country’s success is partly due to its continuous focus on products where it has a competitive advantage, such as clothes.
