Bangladesh: Recent Progress in Economic Statistics Regional Programme on Economic Statistics(RPES) in Asia and Pacific, ESCAP Bangkok, May 7-10,2018 Country Presentation Bangladesh: Recent Progress in Economic Statistics Abul Kalam Azad, Director Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Mohammad Salim Sarker , Deputy Director ,BBS

Presentation Outline Introduction Improvement Made in Economic Statistics Between ,2011-2018 Economic Census Household Income & Expenditure Survey Labour Force Survey National Accounts Conclusion

Introduction After assessment of the capacity of Bangladesh Statistical System in October 2011 jointly by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and ESCAP ,considerable progress has been made in light of the recommendation of the assessment with respect to legal framework and strategic planning for strengthening National Statistical System (NSS) with particular emphasis on Economic Statistics. The core activities done during 2011-2018 are provided below:

Major Improvement Made in Economic Statistics Between ,2011-2018 Area Position in 2011 Position in 2018 Legal Framework No Legal Framework Existed Statistics Act 2013 was Enacted in February 2013 by the Parliament. Strategic Plan No Strategic Plan Existed National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) was approved by the Government in October 2013. Industrial Statistics BSIC-III was the latest Publication BSIC-IV Published. Survey of Manufacturing Industry(SMI) SMI 2005-06 was the latest SMI 2012 conducted & Report Published.

Major Improvement Made in Economic Statistics Between ,2011-2018 Area Position in 2011 Position in 2018 Economic Census Economic Census 2001&2003 was the latest Economic Census 2013 conducted and Report Published. Labour Force Survey(LFS) Labour Force Survey 2010 was the latest and the interval of survey undertaking was 3-5 years LFS 2013 Conducted and Quarterly LFS introduced from 2015-16. Annual QLFS report Published. Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) HIES 2010 was the latest available Survey with only 12240 Household in the Sample HIES 2016 Conducted in 46080 Household in the Sample capable of providing Quarterly and district level poverty estimates. Preliminary Report of HIES 2016 Published. National Accounts GDP was based on 1995-96 No Focal study was done to extend coverage of GDP GDP rebased from 1995-96 to 2005-06. As many as 13 Focal Study was conducted to extend Coverage of GDP.

Industrial Statistics Prepared Bangladesh Standard Industrial Classification (BSIC) following International Industrial Classification (Revision-iv ); Conducted Survey of Manufacturing Industries (SMI) in 2012, following BSIC revision-iv

Economic Census 2013 According to the recommendation of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) the main purpose of the Economic Census is to generate data as benchmark for Statistical Business Register, for annual economic surveys and other economic statistics. Bangladesh conducted the 3rd Economic Census of the Country in 2013 ( 1st Economic Census was held in 1986 and 2nd in 2001 & 2003)

Post Economic Census Major Activities Using the Economic Census Data the following activities are being done now: Preparation of a Business Directory to conduct surveys on industrial and service sector. Preparation of a Statistical Business Register with detailed information to update the information collected under Economic Census 2013.

Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016 HIES is one of the core activities of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics( BBS); It is the standalone survey in Bangladesh to provide reliable and credible estimate of poverty and its correlates. HIES data is also used to provide consumption expenditure at household level for national account estimate and to determine weights for CPI.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2013,2015-16 & 2016-17 Labour Force in any country plays as the key input for producing goods and services for the Gross Domestic Product(GDP). The objectives of Labour Force Survey are to estimate size of labour force by socio-economic characteristics, employed & unemployed population, status in employment, hours worked, average earnings etc.

Labour Force Survey ,2013,2015-16 & 2016-17 (contd.) Earlier BBS used to conduct LFS in the interval of 3 to 5 years Considering the demand of the users for Key Labour Market Information , BBS has started conducting Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) from July 2015 and provide information on Key Labour Market on Quarterly as well as on Annual basis.

National Accounts Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has a well equipped National Accounting Wing. This wing prepares and publishes key national accounts aggregates annually from primary and secondary data. It releases CPI and inflation rate data on monthly.

National Accounts Statistics (contd. Focus Study to Improve Coverage of GDP Name of the study Year of conducting the study Broad economic sector Real Estate Activities Survey, 2011-12 2012 Service Survey on Captive Power Generation (Informal), 2011-12 Industry Survey of Self Employed Professionals, 2011-12 Survey of Inventory, 2011-12 Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) of Bangladesh (Pilot), 2011-12 Report on Household Based Forestry Survey 2011-12 Agriculture

National Accounts Statistics (contd.) Survey of Selected Business Services 2012 (Decorator Service, Recruiting Services, Security Services, Cleaning Services) 2012 Industry Construction Survey, 2013-14 2014 Case Studies on Selected Economic Activities, 2014.. (Money changing service, Rickshaw/rickshaw van, Easy-bike/ three-wheeler, Fisheries, Irrigation services and Co-operative society) Service

National Accounts Statistics (contd.) Survey on Private Sector Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Cultivable Biological Resources, 2014 2014 Private Sector Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Entertainment and Literary Survey, 2015 2015 Service Private Sector Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Computer Software Survey, 2016 2016 Survey on Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISHs), 2016

Conclusion As Bangladesh has recently fulfilled the criterion to graduate from LDC to a developing nation data base for Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) need to be strengthen. Moreover, for Monitoring SDG, SDG focused surveys with more disaggregation need to be undertaken. Explore the possibility of using administrative data to supplement survey data.

Conclusion (contd.) In order to determine the contribution of informal sector in GDP and employment, Survey on Informal Sector should be done on a regular basis. The capacity of human resources of BBS need to be enhanced for data analysis and quick dissemination of survey findings. Support of the development partners including ESCAP are needed for these purposes.

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