Bangladesh’s economic activities at the household level swelled tremendously over the last one decade, showing an increasing trend of entrepreneurship among rural people, the 2024 Economic Census report unveiled by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Wednesday said.
It said the number of economic households (HH) in 2024 jumped to 5.01 million, 77.30 percentage points higher than 2.82 million in the previous census report of 2013.
Out of the 5.01 million economic households, some 4.12 million (82.20 per cent) are in villages and 0.89 million (17.80 per cent) are in urban areas.
The previous 2013 census report said the share of rural economic households was 2.37 million and urban economic households was 0.44 million.
Meanwhile, the service sector dominates Bangladesh’s economy at this moment as its share in economic units went up to 91.23 per cent, diminishing the previous Sheikh Hasina government’s growth narratives over more than a decade.
But the share of the main growth engine – the manufacturing sector -diminished to 8.77 per cent, the preliminary report said.
Attending the report launching ceremony, Planning and Education Advisor Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said, “In light of the preliminary report’s data, it is a good achievement for Bangladesh that entrepreneurship boosted among the general people, especially those in rural areas.”
“Now, we have to take care of the enterprises and facilitate them to engage in business and investment,” he added.
The BBS unveiled the report at its office in Dhaka. The planning and education adviser attended the event as the chief guest.
The share of female-headed economic units dropped to 6.466 per cent in the census period compared to 7.21 per cent in the 2013 census, the report said.
According to the report, although the total number of economic units increased to 11.877 million from 7.81 million in 2013, the share of manufacturing units decreased over the years.
The industrial sector’s share in the national economy jumped to 37.95 per cent during the fiscal year 2023-24 and its manufacturing sub-sector’s contribution was 25.07 per cent.
According to the BBS, the service sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slightly decreased to 51.5 per cent compared to that a few years back.
Among the 11.877 million economic units in Bangladesh, 5.01 million are economic households, 6.288 million are permanent establishments, and 0.57 million are temporary households.
Division-wise, the share of economic units in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, and Barishal increased. It decreased in the rest of the divisions.
The total number of persons engaged in economic units increased to 30.76 million in 2024 from 24.50 million in 2013.
E-commerce data was included for the first time in the census. Wednesday’s report said some 0.116 million economic units out of a total of 5.012 million operate e-commerce.
E-commerce payments are dominated by cash, standing at 35.58 per cent. The share of online banking in such payments is 19.18 per cent and agent banking is 9.88 per cent.
Meanwhile, 85.84 per cent of the economic units said they have unavailable capital for business, 34.41 per cent have no access to easy loans, and 18.75 per cent have infrastructural problems.
Dr Mahmud said some big corporations, including Beximco, laundered money by taking bank loans.
“However, small enterprises in rural and urban areas are not getting bank loans, as shown in the census report,” he said, urging the media to highlight the problems of small businesses.
Replying to a question about data manipulation by the ousted Sheikh Hasina government, he said, “They manipulated some data like the previous governments, who did so to some extent.”
“But I can assure you that I am not intervening in the BBS data. We are working to prepare a statistics law so that nobody can interfere in BBS’s independence in quality data production,” the adviser added.
Dr KAS Murshid, chairman of the Taskforce on Re-strategising the Economy and Mobilising Resources for Equitable and Sustainable Development, Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain, and BBS Director General Mohammed Mizanur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.
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