Household debt doubles in 6 yrs
Staff Reporter :
The average amount of debt in Bangladeshalmost doubled in last six years amounted to Tk 73, 980, according to the data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2022.
The HIES-2022 showed, people living in urban areas have nearly four times more debt than the people in rural areas.
For the households in the rural areas, the average debt is Tk 44,411. On the other hand, average debt per household in urban area is Tk 1,37,456.
This amount was Tk. 31,332 and Tk. 59,728 in rural and urban areas respectively in HIES 2016, and Tk. 21,804 and Tk. 54,122 in rural and urban areas respectively in HIES 2010.
The national average debt per household was Tk. 37,743 and Tk. 28,062 in HIES 2016 and HIES 2010 respectively.
Those data were revealed in the final report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) ‘Household Income and Expenditure Survey’ (HIES-2022) on Wednesday.
The household’s average monthly income has increased in nominal terms to Tk. 32,422 in 2022, from Tk. 15,988 in 2016 and Tk. 11,479 in 2010, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
However, monthly total expenditure among households has increased nominally to Tk. 31,500 in 2022 from Tk. 15,715 in 2016, the HIES-2022 showed.
Apart from these, The HIES-2022 said poverty declined in 2022 showing the upper poverty line is 18.7 per cent at the national level, 20.5 per cent in rural areas, and 14.7 per cent in urban areas.
The official HCR 2016 using the upper poverty line was 24.3 per cent at the national level, 26.4 percent in rural areas, and 18.9 percent in urban areas.
Households reported in HIES 2022 that they have access to electricity (National Grid/Solar electricity) in Bangladesh.
In rural areas this rate is 99.14 per cent and 99.78 per cent in urban areas According to HIES data, the concentration of earnings in higher income groups is gradually increasing, pointing to the deepening disparity.
In 2022, the income Gini coefficient was 0.499 at the national level, 0.446 in rural areas and 0.539 in urban areas.
It was 0.482 at the national level, 0.454 in rural areas, and 0.498 in urban areas in 2016.
