STAR BUSINESS REPORT

Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said the poverty rate has been rising since 2022, reversing more than ten years of steady decline.

“Bangladesh has a strong record of poverty reduction, particularly since 2010. But since 2022, we have seen a reversal,” he said at an event at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka yesterday.

After warnings from international agencies and local think tanks in recent months, the government has now publicly acknowledged that the number of people living in poverty is growing.

A World Bank report last month projected that the poverty rate in Bangladesh will rise to 21.2 percent in 2025, up from 20.5 percent the previous year. The bank estimated that more than 30 lakh people fell into poverty in 2024, a sign that the economy is losing its ability to shield vulnerable populations from economic shocks.

In August, the Power and Participation Research Centre, a policy think tank, reported that the poverty rate had surged to 27.93 percent from 18.7 percent in 2022.

In 2016, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) estimated the poverty rate at 24.3 percent.

At the event, organised by the Social Development Foundation (SDF), an autonomous organisation under the Financial Institution Division, Ahmed said poverty has two dimensions.

He described these as material poverty and poverty of the mind. Material poverty, he said, reflects present conditions, while the second dimension relates to the process of improvement.

“With such a large population, addressing both simultaneously is a major challenge, and progress naturally takes time. Without setbacks, the reduction would have been greater,” he added.

He said inadequate implementation of poverty reduction projects remains a key weakness.

“Our programme designs are strong, but execution is poor due to incompetence, perceived corruption, and slow laws and procedures,” he said.

Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the Research and Policy Integration for Development, said the pace of poverty reduction, A According to