Bangladesh's GDP growth slows to 2.22% in third quarter as industry slips into contraction
business24bd.com
Bangladesh's economic growth has slowed sharply to 2.22 percent in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025-26, with the industrial sector slipping into negative territory.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Monday released provisional GDP estimates for the January-March quarter of the fiscal year, which ended on Jun 30.
The economy had expanded 4.53 percent in the same quarter of FY2024-25.
The BBS had earlier estimated overall GDP growth at 4.14 percent for FY2025-26, after publishing provisional figures on Jun 10.
The interim government had targeted 5.5 percent growth for the fiscal year.
Final data show the economy grew 3.49 percent in FY2024-25. Quarterly growth stood at 3.91 percent in July-September, 3.53 percent in October-December, 4.53 percent in January-March and 2.05 percent in April-June.
For FY2025-26, provisional estimates put first-quarter growth at 4.96 percent and second-quarter growth at 3.03 percent.
GDP estimates are based on agriculture, industry and services. Growth slowed across all three sectors in the third quarter.
Industrial output contracted by 0.28 percent, compared with 3.33 percent growth in the same period a year earlier.
Agriculture expanded 1.74 percent, while services grew 3.52 percent during the January-March quarter.
In the previous quarter, agriculture grew 3.68 percent, industry 1.27 percent and services 4.45 percent. In the first quarter, growth stood at 2.11 percent, 6.82 percent and 4.51 percent, respectively.
The BNP government has set a 6.5 percent GDP growth target for FY2026-27.
