Bangladesh

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Country summary

Capital

Dhaka

Borders

Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km

Government type

parliamentary democracy

Population

156,050,883 (July 2010 est.)[1]

Population growth

1.292% (2010 est.)[1]

Life expectancy

60.25 years[1]

Unemployment

5.1% (2009 est.)[1]

Index of Economic Freedom

137[2]

Corruption Perceptions Index

139[3]

Doing Business ranking

119[4]


Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reelected prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Taka (ISO code: BDT)
  • Central bank discount rate: 5% (15 December 2009)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 13% (30 September 2009)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $10.35 billion (30 September 2009)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $45.23 billion (30 September 2009)[1]

Notable events:

Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[6] 45 694 47 097 46 988 47 571 51 914 56 561 60 278 61 901 68 415 79 554
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[7] 36.151 36.655 36.161
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[8] 9.830 10.209 10.100 9.965 10.310 10.185 10.253 10.957
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[9] 9.023 9.073 9.081 8.754 9.381 9.670 10.080 10.860
Debt to revenue (years) 3.678 3.590 3.580

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CIA - The World Factbook. "Bangladesh", from The World Factbook. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  2. Heritage Foundation. "Bangladesh", Economic Freedom Score. A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  3. Transparency International. "Bangladesh", Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. A lower ranking is better; but please note that the numbers cannot be compared between countries or years due to different methodology. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  4. Doing Business. "Bangladesh", Doing Business 2010 (part of The World Bank Group). A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  5. Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "This Time is Different", Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6, p. 351. (The list does not claim to be complete.) Referenced 2011-07-19.
  6. World Bank. "Bangladesh: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  7. World Bank. "Bangladesh: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  8. World Bank. "Bangladesh: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  9. World Bank. "Bangladesh: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.

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