Quality Learning for All Program

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Bangladesh is one of the world’s most populous countries with an estimated 165 million people in a geographical area of about 144,415 km2 and per capita income of US$1,480 in 2017, well above the lower-middle-income country category threshold which it crossed in fiscal year 2014 (FY14). During recent years, economic conditions have improved in the country with headline inflation declining to 5.4 percent in FY17 from 5.9 percent in FY16, while the fiscal deficit was contained at about 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in FY17. The FY18 budget targets 5 percent deficit with 26.2 percent growth in expenditures. The current account balance turned into a deficit, equivalent to 0.6 percent of GDP in FY17. The GDP grew well above the average for developing countries in recent years, averaging 6.5 percent since 2010, with an officially reported growth of 7.24 percent in FY17, driven by manufacturing and services. Progress on reducing extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity through human development and employment generation has continued with the poverty incidence based on the international US$1.90 per capita per day poverty line (measured based on the purchasing power parity exchange rate) declining from 44.2 percent in 1991 to 13.8 percent in 2016 (latest available poverty data). Bangladesh’s performance against the Millennium Development Goals is impressive against the South Asia Region average for most of the indicators. Such progress notwithstanding, the pace of poverty reduction and the rate of job creation have slowed since 2010. Bangladesh needs more effort in improving its growth rate to meet its target of moving up the middle-income rankings by 2021 and eliminating poverty by 2030. For accelerating private sector-led growth with improved investment climate, the key challenges are the need for increased infrastructure and power, with much improved quality in spending public resources, better regulations, and enhanced skills of its vast and rapidly increasing labor force.