The importance of one cash crop overshadows all else as the
source of Bangladesh's export earnings. Bangladesh is the world's
largest producer of jute, a fibrous substance used in making
burlap, sacks, mats, rope and twine, and carpet backing. Jute is
sold on the international market either raw or in the form of
manufactured goods. This so-called "golden fiber" is cultivated on
the same land as rice; thus each season farmers must decide which
crop to plant.
During the colonial period, when East Bengal was used by the
British to produce primary goods for processing elsewhere, raw jute
was the main product. Calcutta became the manufacturing center
where jute was transformed into twine and rope, sacking material,
and carpet backing. The partition of British India in 1947 put an
international boundary between the source of the basic commodity
and the manufacturing center and imposed a great burden on Pakistan
to compensate for the disruption of the industry that was its
greatest source of foreign earnings. Between 1947 and 1971 jute
mills were constructed in East Pakistan, but industrialization
proceeded slowly.
In the 1960s, petroleum-based synthetics entered the market,
competing with jute for practically all of its uses. The upheavals
culminating in the emergence of independent Bangladesh drove many
traditional buyers of jute to shift to synthetics. World trade in
jute and jute goods declined absolutely from 1.8 million tons in
1970 to 1.5 million tons in 1982. Despite some major year-to-year
swings, prices fell precipitously through the mid-1980s. Prices
were too low to cover the costs of production, but the government
nonetheless deemed it essential to subsidize growers and industry
and ensure the continued existence of as large a foreign market as
possible. Ironically, Bangladesh's indispendable foreigh exchange
earner was thus itself a drain on the economy
(see Foreign Trade
, this ch.).
There have been enormous year-to-year fluctuations both of
producer prices and of production. An extreme example occurred
between FY 1984 and FY 1986. Carry-over stocks had been run down
since the previous production surge in FY 1980, and serious floods
in 1984 resulted in unanticipated production losses. The price
doubled to US$600 per ton at the export level, which triggered the
traditional response of farmers; they planted much more of their
land in jute, and between one year and the next production rose
more than 50 percent, from 5.1 million bales in FY 1985 to 8.6
million bales the following year. History proved true to itself yet
again when export prices then fell by 50 percent at the export
level and by more than 30 percent at the farm-gate level. The drop
would have been even greater had the government not intervened. It
bought 30 percent of the crop through the Bangladesh Jute
Corporation and persuaded private mills to buy more raw jute than
justified by their own projections of demand.
Jute is a highly labor-intensive crop, much more so than rice,
but the yield per hectare is also higher than is generally achieved
for rice. When the farm-gate price for jute is 50 percent higher
than the price for rice, farmers respond by planting more land in
jute at the expense of rice. With the expansion of irrigation
facilities in the 1980s, the economic incentives to stick with rice
have increased, but there may be scope for increasing jute
production by substituting it for the low-yield broadcast
aus rice grown on unirrigated land during the same season as
jute.
The fact that jute production is so labor intensive has played
to Bangladesh's strength, given the country's large rural
underemployment. Because wage rates in Bangladesh have been lower
than in other jute-producing countries and because Bangladesh has
the ideal growing conditions for jute, the country has benefited
from encouraging its production even when world price and demand
projections have offered bleak prospects. High as Bangladesh's
share of world trade has been--in 1985 it amounted to 77 percent of
all raw jute trade and 45 percent of jute goods--there are
realistic possibilities for expanding the share still further. The
World Bank has estimated that Bangladesh's share could rise to 84
percent for raw jute and 55 percent for manufactures. Jute
production appeared in the late 1980s to be an essential part of
the long-term development plan because, for all the troubles and
struggles associated with its planting and marketing, no
alternative activity offered any promise of being more profitable.
Many economists believe the key to preservation of the
viability of jute as an international commodity lies in maintaining
price and supply stability. That has proved a difficult task. Of
thirty major primary commodities traded internationally, only about
six have as much price and supply instability as jute. Demand is
highly sensitive to price increases, but not nearly as sensitive to
decreases; once a portion of the market is lost to synthetics, it
is very difficult to win it back through price competition. For
example, in FY 1986 export sales remained low despite a 35-percent
decline in export prices; the fall in world oil prices had also
resulted in declines in the prices of polypropylene substitutes for
jute as well, and most buyers that had switched to synthetics chose
not to return to jute. In the late 1980s, there was nothing in the
offing to arrest the trend of several decades of decreasing global
demand for jute and declines in the value of jute relative to the
goods Bangladesh must import to meet the basic needs of a
desperately poor economy.
The government has an ongoing responsibility to monitor the
jute situation, to intervene when necessary, and to preserve the
economic viability of the commodity responsible for one-third of
the nation's foreign trade earnings. It sets floor prices and
becomes the buyer of last resort. In 1986 buffer-stock operations
were extended through the Bangladesh Jute Corporation and resulted
in the government's buying 30 percent of the entire crop. These
stocks then become available for use by the government-owned
Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation or for sale to private mills or
overseas customers. But in this case, the limitations of this
government tool were demonstrated the next year, when the jute crop
was of normal volume but the price of raw jute fell a further 35
percent, to the lowest levels in a decade. The government could not
arrest the decline because its financial resources and storage
capacity were already stretched to the breaking point.
Some hope for a better future has been placed in cooperation
among jute-producing countries through the International Jute
Organization, based in Dhaka. Member countries in 1988 were the
producing countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and
Thailand and more than twenty consuming countries, including the
United States. The goals of the fledgling International Jute
Organization were appropriately modest to begin with, centering on
better dissemination of basic information, coordination of
agricultural and industrial research and of economic studies, and
steps toward coordination of marketing. It remained to be seen in
mid-1988 whether this poorly financed new organization,
representing the first feeble effort at a coordinated approach to
the problems of jute, would be effective in arresting its long
decline as an important international commodity.
|
Background | | 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.
|
|
Location | | Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India
|
|
Area(sq km) | | total: 143,998 sq km
land: 130,168 sq km
water: 13,830 sq km
|
|
Geographic coordinates | | 24 00 N, 90 00 E
|
|
Land boundaries(km) | | total: 4,246 km
border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km
|
|
Coastline(km) | | 580 km
|
|
Climate | | tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)
|
|
Elevation extremes(m) | | lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m
|
|
Natural resources | | natural gas, arable land, timber, coal
|
|
Land use(%) | | arable land: 55.39%
permanent crops: 3.08%
other: 41.53% (2005)
|
|
Irrigated land(sq km) | | 47,250 sq km (2003)
|
|
Total renewable water resources(cu km) | | 1,210.6 cu km (1999)
|
|
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) | | total: 79.4 cu km/yr (3%/1%/96%)
per capita: 560 cu m/yr (2000)
|
|
Natural hazards | | droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season
|
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Environment - current issues | | many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation
|
|
Environment - international agreements | | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
|
|
Geography - note | | most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal
|
|
Population | | 156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)
|
|
Age structure(%) | | 0-14 years: 34.6% (male 27,065,625/female 26,913,961)
15-64 years: 61.4% (male 45,222,182/female 50,537,052)
65 years and over: 4% (male 3,057,255/female 3,254,808) (2009 est.)
|
|
Median age(years) | | total: 23.3 years
male: 22.9 years
female: 23.5 years (2009 est.)
|
|
Population growth rate(%) | | 1.292% (2009 est.)
|
|
Birth rate(births/1,000 population) | | 24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
|
|
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population) | | 9.23 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
|
|
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population) | | -2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
|
|
Urbanization(%) | | urban population: 27% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
|
|
Sex ratio(male(s)/female) | | at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
|
|
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births) | | total: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 66.12 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 51.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
|
|
Life expectancy at birth(years) | | total population: 60.25 years
male: 57.57 years
female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)
|
|
Total fertility rate(children born/woman) | | 2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)
|
|
Nationality | | noun: Bangladeshi(s)
adjective: Bangladeshi
|
|
Ethnic groups(%) | | Bengali 98%, other 2% (includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims) (1998)
|
|
Religions(%) | | Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
|
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Languages(%) | | Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English
|
|
Country name | | conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh
conventional short form: Bangladesh
local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh
local short form: Banladesh
former: East Bengal, East Pakistan
|
|
Government type | | parliamentary democracy
|
|
Capital | | name: Dhaka
geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E
time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
|
|
Administrative divisions | | 6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet
|
|
Constitution | | 4 November 1972; effective 16 December 1972; suspended following coup of 24 March 1982; restored 10 November 1986; amended many times
|
|
Legal system | | based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
|
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Suffrage | | 18 years of age; universal
|
|
Executive branch | | chief of state: President Zillur RAHMAN (since 12 February 2009)
head of government: Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA Wajed (since 6 January 2009)
cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the president
elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); last election held on 11 February 2009 (next scheduled election to be held in 2014)
election results: Zillur RAHMAN declared president-elect by the Election Commission on 11 February 2009 (sworn in on 12 February); he ran unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote - NA
|
|
Legislative branch | | unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies; members serve five-year terms
elections: last held 29 December 2008 (next to be held in 2013)
election results: percent of vote by party - AL 49%, BNP 33.2%, JP 7%, JIB 4.6%, other 6.2%; seats by party - AL 230, BNP 30, JP 27, JIB 2, other 11
|
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Judicial branch | | Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president)
|
|
Political pressure groups and leaders | | Advocacy to End Gender-based Violence through the MoWCA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs)
other: environmentalists; Islamist groups; religious leaders; teachers; union leaders
|
|
International organization participation | | ADB, ARF, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
|
|
Flag description | | green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush vegetation of Bangladesh
|
|
Economy - overview | | The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.
|
|
GDP (purchasing power parity) | | $226.4 billion (2008 est.)
$214 billion (2007 est.)
$201.5 billion (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
|
|
GDP (official exchange rate) | | $84.2 billion (2008 est.)
|
|
GDP - real growth rate(%) | | 5.8% (2008 est.)
6.2% (2007 est.)
6.4% (2006 est.)
|
|
GDP - per capita (PPP) | | $1,500 (2008 est.)
$1,400 (2007 est.)
$1,300 (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
|
|
GDP - composition by sector(%) | | agriculture: 19.1%
industry: 28.6%
services: 52.3% (2008 est.)
|
|
Labor force | | 70.86 million
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2008 est.)
|
|
Labor force - by occupation(%) | | agriculture: 63%
industry: 11%
services: 26% (FY95/96)
|
|
Unemployment rate(%) | | 2.5% (2008 est.)
2.5% (2007 est.)
|
|
Population below poverty line(%) | | 45% (2004 est.)
|
|
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%) | | lowest 10%: 4.3%
highest 10%: 26.6% (2005)
|
|
Distribution of family income - Gini index | | 33.2 (2005)
33.6 (1996)
|
|
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP) | | 24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
|
|
Budget | | revenues: $8.825 billion
expenditures: $12.54 billion (2008 est.)
|
|
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%) | | 8.9% (2008 est.)
9.1% (2007 est.)
|
|
Stock of money | | $9.294 billion (31 December 2008)
$8.444 billion (31 December 2007)
|
|
Stock of quasi money | | $37.98 billion (31 December 2008)
$32.35 billion (31 December 2007)
|
|
Stock of domestic credit | | $47.03 billion (31 December 2008)
$40.1 billion (31 December 2007)
|
|
Market value of publicly traded shares | | $6.671 billion (31 December 2008)
$6.793 billion (31 December 2007)
$3.61 billion (31 December 2006)
|
|
Economic aid - recipient | | $1.321 billion (2005)
|
|
Public debt(% of GDP) | | 39.4% of GDP (2008 est.)
43% of GDP (2004 est.)
|
|
Agriculture - products | | rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry
|
|
Industries | | cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
|
|
Industrial production growth rate(%) | | 6.9% (2008 est.)
|
|
Current account balance | | $1.032 billion (2008 est.)
$856.8 million (2007 est.)
|
|
Exports | | $15.44 billion (2008 est.)
$12.47 billion (2007 est.)
|
|
Exports - commodities(%) | | garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
|
|
Exports - partners(%) | | US 21%, Germany 13.2%, UK 8.6%, France 6.3%, Netherlands 4.7% (2008)
|
|
Imports | | $21.51 billion (2008 est.)
$16.67 billion (2007 est.)
|
|
Imports - commodities(%) | | machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
|
|
Imports - partners(%) | | China 14.7%, India 14.7%, Kuwait 7.5%, Singapore 7.1%, Japan 4.1% (2008)
|
|
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | | $5.789 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$5.278 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
|
|
Debt - external | | $22.83 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$21.23 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
|
|
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home | | $5.971 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
$5.261 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
|
|
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad | | $97 million (31 December 2008 est.)
|
|
Exchange rates | | taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)
|
|
Currency (code) | | taka (BDT)
|
|
Telephones - main lines in use | | 1.39 million (2009)
|
|
Telephones - mobile cellular | | 45.75 million (2009)
|
|
Telephone system | | general assessment: inadequate for a modern country; fixed-line telephone density remains less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership has been increasing rapidly and has reached 30 per 100 persons
domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some fiber-optic cable in cities
international: country code - 880; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-4 fiber-optic submarine cable system that provides links to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; satellite earth stations - 6; international radiotelephone communications and landline service to neighboring countries (2008)
|
|
Internet country code | | .bd
|
|
Internet users | | 556,000 (2008)
|
|
Airports | | 17 (2009)
|
|
Pipelines(km) | | gas 2,597 km (2008)
|
|
Roadways(km) | | total: 239,226 km
paved: 22,726 km
unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)
|
|
Ports and terminals | | Chittagong, Mongla Port
|
|
Military branches | | Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army (Sena Bahini), Bangladesh Navy (Noh Bahini, BN), Bangladesh Air Force (Biman Bahini, BAF) (2009)
|
|
Military service age and obligation(years of age) | | 16 years of age for voluntary military service; 17 years of age for officers (both with parental consent); conscription legally possible in emergency, but has never been implemented (2008)
|
|
Manpower available for military service | | males age 16-49: 41,199,340 (2008 est.)
|
|
Manpower fit for military service | | males age 16-49: 24,946,041
females age 16-49: 31,409,069 (2009 est.)
|
|
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually | | male: 1,538,865
female: 1,666,670 (2009 est.)
|
|
Military expenditures(% of GDP) | | 1.5% of GDP (2006)
|
|
Disputes - international | | discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, exchange territory for 51 small Bangladeshi exclaves in India and 111 small Indian exclaves in Bangladesh, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's fencing and walling off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary commission resurveyed and reconstructed 92 missing pillars in 2007; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; after 21 years, Bangladesh resumes talks with Burma on delimiting a maritime boundary
|
|
Refugees and internally displaced persons | | refugees (country of origin): 26,268 (Burma)
IDPs: 65,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2007)
|
|
Electricity - production(kWh) | | 22.99 billion kWh (2007 est.)
|
|
Electricity - production by source(%) | | fossil fuel: 93.7%
hydro: 6.3%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001)
|
|
Electricity - consumption(kWh) | | 21.38 billion kWh (2007 est.)
|
|
Electricity - exports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
|
|
Electricity - imports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
|
|
Oil - production(bbl/day) | | 6,426 bbl/day (2008 est.)
|
|
Oil - consumption(bbl/day) | | 95,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
|
|
Oil - exports(bbl/day) | | 2,612 bbl/day (2007 est.)
|
|
Oil - imports(bbl/day) | | 87,660 bbl/day (2007 est.)
|
|
Oil - proved reserves(bbl) | | 28 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
|
|
Natural gas - production(cu m) | | 17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
|
|
Natural gas - consumption(cu m) | | 17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
|
|
Natural gas - exports(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008)
|
|
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m) | | 141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
|
|
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) | | less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
|
|
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | | 12,000 (2007 est.)
|
|
HIV/AIDS - deaths | | fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
|
|
Major infectious diseases | | degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations
water contact disease: leptospirosis
animal contact disease: rabies
note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
|
|
Literacy(%) | | definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 47.9%
male: 54%
female: 41.4% (2001 Census)
|
|
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years) | | total: 8 years
male: 8 years
female: 8 years (2004)
|
|
Education expenditures(% of GDP) | | 2.7% of GDP (2005)
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