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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Size of the Bangladesh underground economy

So, it's an official one. The Finance Division got the number of the underground (or, shadow) economy, Bangladesh, which varies between 45.0% to 81.0% of GDP. The estimates based on Currency-Demand Approach confirms that the shadow economy was worth between $50.0 billion - $100 billion in 2010!

Previously, the international organizations used to quote the size of the Bangladesh shadow economy between 30.0%-35.0% of GDP.

Now, it's proved by the Finance Division that the level of GDP, if not growth of GDP, is underestimated by a large number.

I have one simple question, nothing political, but mostly institutional of the national statistics division. Does Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) really have any systematic approach to estimate GDP of Bangladesh in each year? (why I am thinking so? There are lots of reasons. Food for another day's thought) I have a real doubt. Then how does the finance division estimate the size of the underground economy in terms of GDP?

Anyway, you may like to read a good article on the above news in today's Finance Express wrote by Mr. Shamsul Huq Zahid

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