With higher inflation, increase in average income means little

At present the average monthly income of a person in Bangladesh is Tk 7,614.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) that provided this figure, this income almost doubled from the year 2016 when the average income of a person was Tk. 3940.

It is normal to expect that the income of city people is much higher than that of the village people.

This year’s statistics is no exception. In the urban areas the average monthly income of a person is Tk 10, 951, but for a village person this is almost half, Tk 6,091.

Though these statistics include children, old people and women who cannot work for practical reasons, the fact must be accepted that in these days of high inflation, this average income is inadequate for most people.

Not all in a family earn money: A family can have one or more earners. The average income of earners was also a subject of the BBS survey. The average income of earners is Tk 25,707 while six years ago the amount was Tk 13, 646.

However, to the reservists the figures that BBS present in various economic indicators come shrouded in doubt. They believe that the government often provides indicators to paint a rosy picture of the economy.

For them it is unbelievable that the monthly income of a family is Tk. 32,422, but the expenditure of that family is Tk 31,500 per month. This means that on average a family saves Tk. 922 per month.

There is little doubt that there will be a change in the income-expenditure due to the change in the socio-economic conditions.

However, area-wise, the country’s Barishal region is the poorest in terms of income and expenditure, contrary to general belief that poverty is the acutest in the northern region of the country. But BBS says the highest poverty is actually in the Barishal division. The poverty rate in this division is 26.9. The poverty rate is lowest in neighbouring Khulna division. Here it is 14.8.

The poverty rate is 17.9 in Dhaka, 15.8 in Chattogram, 16.7 in Rajshahi, 17.4 in Sylhet, 24.8 in Rangpur and 24.2 in Mymensingh. These poverty rate figures clearly tell that in Barishal, Rangpur and Mymensigh divisions’ efforts of poverty alleviation should be given an extra thrust.