The world’s advanced economies are in the grip of a prolonged productivity crisis. In the decade following the financial crisis of 2008, the growth of output per hour worked in the Group of Seven rich countries slumped to less than 1 percent a year – less than half the rate of the decade before. This dismal performance is the single biggest economic problem facing the developed world – as well as the root of much of political and geostrategic angst.

Bangladesh’s $8 billion food processing industry has annually grown by 8 percent on an average between 2005 and 2023, powered by rising middle-class and urban consumer demand for convenience, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Bangladesh’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) pointed to a slower expansion rate in business activities in the key sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, construction and services in June compared to the month prior.

The government has prepared a list of 494 products to secure geographical indication (GI) recognition for them in order to safeguard the source of their origin, enhance their economic value at home and abroad, and fetch financial benefits for producers.

One of the main reasons for the $14 billion discrepancy in the export data was the Export Promotion Bureau’s (EPB) double counting of exported garment items made in factories inside export processing zones (EPZs), Salman F Rahman, the prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment, said yesterday.

The annual average price spike in Bangladesh surged to its highest level in 12 years in the just-concluded fiscal year despite easing in June, reflecting the persistent erosion of real income and the deterioration of the living standards of low-income groups.

Three items -- soybean oil, lentil and rice -- will be sold to one crore family cardholders across the country through designated dealers of the TCB.

The PMI score hit 63.9 last month, down from March's 70.1

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics releases data today

Major economic data provided by the government is detached from reality, leading to flawed policies, experts said yesterday..They made the comments after the Bangladesh Bank (BB) corrected anomalies in export figures, bringing down the shipment by nearly $14 billion in the July-April period of the just-concluded fiscal year.

The government’s decision to further cut incentives on export receipts will badly hurt the domestic textile sector which bears an investment of $22 billion, a top leader of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) said yesterday.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) is taking more time than it usually does to release the export data for June apparently because of the shock following the central bank’s correction of overseas sales figures.

The number of users of the Dhaka Stock Exchange’s (DSE) mobile app has more than halved in the past four financial years, apparently due to a protracted bearish trend in the market.

Development initiatives in Bangladesh normally take longer than usual to come to fruition. However, the project to set up a dozen hi-tech parks at the district level is moving at such a glacial pace that it may hold the government from attaining its vision of building a smart nation and readying the workforce for the digitalised world.

Bangladesh Bank’s latest data on the balance of payments has remarkably altered the narrative on the drivers of external stress without changing the signal on the overall stress.

The amount hit $2.9 billion in the January-May period

The primary textile sector will lose competitiveness in global arena, says BTMA president

The disclosure came nearly four months after the HC approved the amalgamation

Says Prof Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir after export data correction

The central bank discovered six types of statistical wrongdoing that inflated export data, a development that led to a multibillion-dollar correction.