Bangladesh achieved an economic landmark last week, when the United Nations’ Committee for Development Policy recommended that the country graduate from the least-developed-country categorization that it has held for most of the 50 years since it became independent.
Bangladesh is notable in South Asia for being the closest proxy for the successful development models seen at various stages in South Korea, China and Vietnam. Export-led development has the best modern track record of moving countries from very low income levels into middle-income status.
Bangladesh’s exports have risen by around 80% in dollar terms in the past decade, driven by the booming garment industry, while India and Pakistan’s exports have actually declined marginally.
South Asian export growth over 10 years. Source: FactSet
As recently as 2011, Bangladesh’s GDP per capita in U.S. dollar terms was 40% below India’s. It caught up last year in large part due to India’s pandemic-related slump, but the International Monetary Fund expects the gap to stay more or less closed.to the rest of South Asia.
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