Overview:
Bangladesh, a densely-populated country of 155 million people in an area the size of Iowa, has registered steady annual GDP growth of 5-7 percent since 1990driven by a booming garment industry and rising remittance flows.
• A stable macroeconomic environment and dynamic private sector have helped increase GDP to nearly $120 billion in Fiscal Year 2012 (from July 1, 2011 –June 30, 2012) with $33.3 billion in imports and $24 billion in exports.
• The IMF estimated that real GDP growth declined slightly from 6.7 percent in FY 2011 to 6.3 percent in FY 2011 while inflation fell from 10.2 percent to 8.7 percent for the same periods.
• U.S. exports to Bangladesh increased by 2% from $864 million in FY 2011 to $887 million in FY 2012, while U.S. imports from Bangladesh rose 1% from $4.86 billion to $4.9 billion in the same periods.
• Nearly ten million Bangladeshis, concentrated mainly in Dhaka and Chittagong, have annual incomes well in excess of $10,000, offering a sizable market for a wide range of goods and services.
• Bangladesh’s garment industry currently produces roughly 80 percent of the country’s exports. Garment exports have expanded steadily since 1990 despite chronic energy shortages, infrastructure constraints, occasional labor unrest and periods of weakening global demand.
• With a workforce growing by roughly 2 million per year and one of the world’s lowest wage rates, Bangladesh has an opportunity to replicate its success in ready-made garment production by developing other labor-intensive industries.
• The rapid growth of Bangladesh’s garment industry and increasing investment in energy sector projects have created growing opportunities for U.S. exports of machinery and raw materials.
• Bangladesh is one of the top 10 remittance earning countries in the world and remittance growth remained buoyant through the world economic downturn,