Introduction

Abstract

In recent years, Bangladesh has made significant strides in terms of economic development and also in relation to key social indicators. The real gross domestic product (GDP) grew consistently at over 6% from fiscal 2011 to 2015, at over 7% in the following 3 years and at 8.13% in fiscal 2019. The per capita GDP in US$ rose from 860 in fiscal 2011 to 1827 in 2019. On the basis of the cost of basic needs, poverty has declined from 31.5% in 2010 to 20.5% in 2019 and extreme poverty from 17.6% to 10.5% during the same time period. However, income disparity has increased during this period with the GINI co-efficient rising from 0.458 in 2010 to 0.482 in 2016. On the social front, life expectancy at birth has risen to 72.6 years in 2019 (female: 74.2 years, male 71.1 years). Infant (less than 1 year) and child (less than 5 years) mortality rates, per thousand live births, are down, respectively, from 31 and 41 in 2013 to 21 and 26 in 2019. Maternal mortality rate has also declined from 2.03% to 1.65% during the same time span. (GoB 2020).