Analysing GII and GNI trends in Bangladesh (2002-2022)

Between 2002 and 2022, Bangladesh saw its GNI per capita surge over 550% while its Gender Inequality Index improved by 31.5%. However, short-term fluctuations show no correlation; rapid economic booms didn't trigger immediate leaps in social equality, proving these metrics can move independently des

Between 2002 and 2022, Bangladesh exhibited favorable trajectories in both Gross National Income (GNI), calculated via the Atlas method, and the Gender Inequality Index (GII). Assessing these indicators facilitates an understanding of a nation’s longitudinal development and assists policymakers in the formulation of economic and political strategies. Furthermore, such analysis is instrumental in identifying potential volatility or structural inconsistencies. To provide a comprehensive explanation of these trends, it is first necessary to establish a conceptual foundation for these metrics.

Understanding the indicators

Firstly, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is in short, the average sum of domestic income plus the income that its citizens earn from work or investments abroad. Applying the Atlas method to measure GNI provides us with a relatively more stable estimate as it uses average exchange rate to US dollars of a three-year period, and even, there is an alternative rate used when the fluctuations of exchange rates are deemed to diverge.

Secondly, The Gender Inequality Index aims to measure gender inequalities, measuring women’s health, specifically the maternal mortality rate and adolescent birth rate. It also

measures women’s participation in parliament and some level of education compared to men. Finally, it looks how women’s participation in the workforce is compared to men. Overall, it helps in highlighting important gender disparities within various countries.

Analysing the result

Now that we understand the indicators we can dive deeper into analysing this period. During the years of 2002-2022 the GNI per capita of Bangladesh went from $430 to $2820. This means there was an increase of over 550% with constant growth year-over-year, most notably during 2016-2018 when the growth-rates exceeded 16% (2016: 16.53%, 2017: 16.98%, 2018: 22.42%). In other years however, it remained rather stable with an average growth of 8.92% (excluding the years 2016, 2017 and 2018). Most notable, apart from the three-year boom, is perhaps the year 2020 which saw a comparatively low growth-rate of only 4,06%.

Overall, the positive trends we can observe during these 20 years indicates there should be continued strong growth in regards to GNI per capita, measured with the Atlas method in Bangladesh.

Looking at the GII numbers we can notice great change here as well, decreasing approximately 31.5% from 0.727 to 0.498, lower meaning better. But a notable difference here in comparison with the GNI numbers is that GII actually had two years of negative setbacks during the years of 2002-2003 and 2007-2008. Interestingly, after the increase (4.52%) of 2007-08 it was quickly followed by a significant decrease in the following year of

-8.75%. But overall, the trend is positive and its trajectory indicates continued improvements in the Gender Inequality Index.

Comparing the two indicators

When comparing the two indicators we do not see any correlating increases or decreases when examining the fluctuations. The three years of significant growth in GNI (2016-2018)

when the growth-rate was approximately double that of its normal numbers, we do not see any significant changes in the GII numbers, either before, during or the years following.

Conclusion

When analysing the trends of these two indicators we can see that a country can achieve rapid progress or decline in one of the two indicators without it having a noticeable effect on the other. We can also see that they both have positive trends long-term, with some periods of more volatile figures. These volatile periods open up for analysis to better understand what happened that affected these periods.