Rich-poor gap increases 80 times: CP

Staff Reporter :
The wealth gap between the poor-rich has increased about 80 times in the country in last one era.

Though the country has progressed with economic and infrastructure development but it did not reach all.

The gap will hinder the future sustainable development, the finding were sorted out in a discussion organized by Civic Platform (CP) held at capital Krishibid Institution Bangladesh (KIB) on Monday.

The main obstacles to socio-economic development in the country are regional disparity, violence and corruption marked by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Chairman Rehman Sobhan.

According to civic platform statistic, in FY2021-2022, the GDP growth was 7.1 per cent and economy has expanded to $460 billion where per capita income was $2.687 thousand.

The poverty has reduced in last six years and now it 18.7 per cent. Extreme poverty also lessens and now it is 5.6 per cent.

Civic platform also thinks that mass people could not get the benefit of the development equally.

The income gap has reached pick.

There was 30 times income gap of five per cent poor and rich people in 2010 whereas it has reached 80 times in 2022.

Those who have accumulated more wealth are enjoying huge political power which could not see before.

The civic platform for implementation The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bangladesh chapter convener Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the benefit of the country’s development failed reach all due to huge income-expenditure gap, lack of the government institutions proficiency, corruption, and accountability.

If these are continuing the institutional weakness will be a big problem for reduce the poor-rich disparity, he added.