Poverty rate fell despite pandemic, Ukraine war: BBS

News Desk :
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global recession brought on by the Ukraine war, Bangladesh’s poverty rate has decreased.
The current upper poverty rate in the country has fallen to 18.7 percent in 2022 from 24.3 percent in 2016, according to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022 released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
The lower poverty rate, which means extreme poverty, has also fallen to 5.6 percent in 2022 from 12.9 percent in the 2016 survey, reports bdnews24.com
BBS Director Mohiuddin Ahmed discussed highlights from the study at an event at the bureau’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Wednesday.
Planning Minister MA Mannan was the chief guest at the event, and State Minister Shamsul Alam was the special guest.
Meanwhile, the per capita monthly income of Bangladesh increased by more than 93% to Tk7,614 in the last six years, according to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). In 2016, people in the country earned an average of Tk3,936 per month which means the income has increased by Tk3,678 in the last six years.
The BBS survey says every household in the country earns an average of Tk32,422 per month. After splitting the amount among a little over four-member family, the per capita income stands at Tk7,614.
The report also states that the per capita income of the country’s people in 2010 was Tk2,553 which rose by 54% over the next six years to Tk3,936 in 2016.
Although the per capita income as per HIES has increased relatively this time, the report has a big difference with the per capita income mentioned in the GDP report published by the National Statistics Wing of the Bureau of Statistics.
The GDP report shows the per capita annual income is Tk2.41 lakh, which stands at Tk20,087 if calculated for monthly income.