Bangladesh’s GDP growth number will not hold water
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Almost this past year, in this column, I wrote about the obsession of our policymakers with the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ("Our incomprehensible obsession with GDP", May 19, 2019). I discussed in brief how GDP is estimated, and its own inherent weaknesses which explains why this indicator shouldn't be taken so seriously.
Highly acclaimed economists have discarded this measure long ago as an indicator of financial prosperity. Amongst others, Nobel Laureate and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz has written time and again that the traditional way of measuring GDP is inaccurate and outdated. In the report "Mis-measuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't ACCUMULATE", Stiglitz along with Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jean-Paul Fitoussi talked about people becoming worse off despite having higher average GDP.
Unfortunately, the fascination about GDP growth among our policymakers has led to another questionable number for the fiscal year 2019-20 (FY2020). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has published the provisional data of the economy for FY2020. This shows the progress of varied sectors and the GDP for the past fiscal year. The provisional GDP growth for FY2020 is estimated to be 5.24 percent. Throughout a time when the whole world is facing the ravage of the ongoing Covid-19 and economies around the world have collapsed regardless of their size and phases of development, Bangladesh's growth number isn't only astonishing but also misleading.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net
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