Share of the industrial sector to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to rise in the outgoing fiscal while that of the largest labour-employing agriculture sector and the service sector significantly, official data showed.
Bangladesh Statistical Bureau (BBS) data projected the share of the industrial sector to the country's GDP at constant price to increase marginally by 0.86 percentage points to 31.99 per cent in the outgoing financial year (FY) 2012-13 from 31.13 per cent of the previous FY2012.
However, the share of the agriculture sector to the GDP is projected to decline by 0.72 percentage points to 18.70 per cent due to the fall in production of some crops.
According to the BBS provisional data, the share of the service sector in the GDP also is projected to decline by 0.72 percentage points to 49.30 per cent in the current FY2013 from 49.45 per cent in the previous FY2012.
BBS provisional data showed, industrial sector in the outgoing FY2013 is projected to grow by 0.09 percentage points to 8.99 per cent at constant prices while the agriculture sector's growth shrank by 0.94 percentage points from 3.11 per cent in the current FY2013.
The service sector's growth declined to 5.73 per cent in the outgoing fiscal although the rate was 5.99 per cent in the previous FY2012, the projection said.
In the outgoing fiscal, the country's GDP growth has been estimated at 6.03 per cent, a 1.77 percentage points lower than 7.2 per cent preliminary target.
The GDP represents the aggregate value of goods and services produced in an economy.
Reviewing the overall performance of the national economy in the outgoing fiscal, a senior Finance Ministry official said the government has taken a cautious approach to maintain an upward economic growth rate in the next FY2014 by weathering the impact of the external shocks and domestic political unrest.
Several fiscal measures will be undertaken through the proposed national budget to attract more investment and to help boost the country's economic growth rate from 6.03 per cent in FY2013 to 7.2 per cent in FY2014, he said.
Development analyst Dr Zaid Bakht said although contribution of the industrial sector to the GDP has been boosted a little bit, fall in service and agriculture sectors have affected the overall economic growth.
Since credit growth in the private sector, and import of capital machinery and raw materials declined in the outgoing fiscal, the economic outlook in the future days is not so bright, he told the FE.
"Growth of the wholesale and retail trade, and financial intermediation declined in the outgoing fiscal which affected the service sector. I think this challenge will continue in the future and will affect achievement of higher GDP growth target in the next fiscal too," he added.
The government might try to boost public investment even by borrowing from the banking and non-banking sectors which could affect the private sector trade and investment in the future, the researcher of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies added.
Not only public investment, the government needs to raise private investment for achieving the higher economic growth target as the private sector is the main driver of the economy
